Djo - The Crux
“My future's not what I thought, I think I thought it wrong”.
Actor Joe Keery’s musical project Djo scored its first big hit last year, when the 2022 track “End Of Beginning” gathered significant traction online. Around a year later, Keery has returned with the third Djo album, “The Crux”.
It has been very clear since the beginning that Djo isn’t an entirely straight-faced project. A certain tongue-in-cheek atmosphere permeated Keery’s first two albums, “Twenty Twenty” and “DECIDE”. However, while “The Crux” definitely maintains a more playful edge throughout a lot of its duration, particularly when it comes to the lead single “Basic Being Basic”, it strikes a really rare balance between Keery’s unique musical personality - the certain weirdness he carries in his writing - and genuine, resonant emotion. Tracks like “Potion” or the eponymous closer feel a great deal more vulnerable than one might usually expect from a Djo record.
Whatever the mood, though, the tasteful theatrics that have been a mainstay of Keery’s musical output haven’t gone anywhere on “The Crux”. Keery is an incredibly engaging narrator with a great deal of presence in each track; some vocal passages are almost reminiscent of Queen or certain periods of David Bowie. The album also doesn’t hold back from going to unexpected places; there’s quite a bit of experimentation involved on the record, and quite a bit of versatility in terms of the sound of each track. Keery opts for some uncharacteristic musical choices, such as the peculiar, bouncy instrumental of “Basic Being Basic”, the choir intro of the penultimate track, “Back On You”, and more.
Lyrically, “The Crux” is a collection of stories about dissatisfaction with life, and about the desire to escape the current reality and find a new existence, where connections would be more genuine, and each day would be more fulfilling. This is very compelling subject matter, and Keery handles it well, with his lyricism not particularly complex, but well-executed nonetheless. The final product is brought together by the crisp, vibrant production, bringing an extra bit of life to every song. The colorful, clear tones of the guitars and bass in particular really stand out.
“The Crux” shows Joe Keery’s continuing progress as a musical artist. It is a very well-rounded album, and could arguably be considered his most complete record yet. It is clear that Keery is finding quite a unique niche for himself within the music world with his eclectic output - and he fills that niche very skillfully.
8.0/10
