After garnering popular support from his breakout sleeper hit End of Beginning, Joe Keery—who performs under the moniker of DJO—went back to the drawing board for his third album. Keery decided to make a leap of faith….. By making his junior album narrative driven. As he said in a January article from DIY Magazine, this album “promises to dive into themes of community, collaboration, and character, all framed by its central concept – a hotel housing guests who are all, in one way or another, at crossroads in their life.” The execution is bold, and the results are engrossing.
We start off with the synths of “Lonesome Is A State of Mind.” Upbeat and introspective in its melodies, this is not a sluggish start as the drums give the track energy, and the electro infused outro give this track a distinct feel. Already, we are given a starter for what Keery wants to accomplish with this album, creating something that is both traditional and a trailblazer, with his trademark desire to give the audience something new.
The first single of The Crux is something I would not usually associate with Keery. But don’t mistake this for him choosing to dumb down his music for the masses. Even in this exercise in cross-genre attention, Keery manages to put a twist in synth-pop with “Basic Being Basic.” With Adam Thein on the synthesizer making the bulk of the sound of this track, the song feels 20 years old, but for all the better. It just goes to show how Keery is multidimensional in his music. His music bounces not only across genres, but also through time.
Onto one of my most favourite tracks of The Crux, “Link” is a song that feels made for a road trip. The first lyrics “I Just Graduated, top of my class / Furthest from last / So why do I feel so bad?” gives the song its “sad and happy” dichotomy, which is a surefire means of eliciting the melancholy associated with the transitions between childhood and young adulthood. What makes this song special in my heart is the chorus: “A link is breaking out of the chain / Hey / I got a feeling a break is gonna happen maybe right now.” With the electric and acoustic guitars pushing the song into overdrive, “Potion” is more stripped down, with Keery’s vocals being eerily similar to Alec Benjamin’s, to exceptional effect. Big props to Adam Thein for providing “additional instrumentation.” The linear notes don’t go into further detail, but they don’t need to, as Thein’s contributions give the track a unique feel.
The second single to come from this album, “Delete Ya” has a more electric feel compared to the previous track, yet retains the same mellow vibe, opting to contemplate a failed relationship rather than the passage of time. A Consequence article put it best by comparing “Delete Ya” to Julian Casablacas—and if that’s not the best compliment an indie-rock artist can get, I don’t know what it is.
Going slower doesn’t mean going easy, demonstrated by “Egg”‘s intro and its transition into the chorus. The track’s minimalism may not work for everyone, including myself during my first listen, however the synths make up for any perceived “emptiness” in the verses. “Egg” solidifies Keery’s indie credentials
Minimalism need not be divisive with “Fly” with its ethereal sound. For reasons somewhat unknown, this song reminds me of New England (fitting as Keery hails from Newburyport, MA). I’d hazard to say this song is as close to a male version of Lizzy McAlpine that I have listened to to date.
If the last few tracks have got you feeling down, fear nought, for “Charlie’s Garden” has a whimsical sound that is sure to pick your mood up. It feels Beatles-like without becoming a lame tribute, as Keery is able to infuse the track with his own 2010’s-influenced indie rock. And if the song didn’t feel eccentric enough, Josh Shpak’s piccolo will surely make you feel zany.
“Gap Tooth Smile” puts the rock in this synth/pop/indie-rock album, with a bare electric instrumentation and near-nostalgic desire for a partner (potentially a former one). This song is destined to be an outdoor performance to a small yet cozy crowd-type of track.
I have a special connection to the “Golden Line”: it reminds me of home. More specifically, it reminds me of the 70s and 80s original Pilipino music/Manila sound that was a staple in my household growing up. The melancholy in Keery’s vocals and the sappy background vocals take me back to house parties with family friends, where we always had jury-rigged karaoke machines to belt out songs like “Golden Line.” If a song’s quality can be measured by its ability to extract an emotional response, this song gets an A+.
“Back On You” veers into becoming dangerously similar to “Gap Tooth Smile,” with its peppy guitar. But what sets it apart is its garage-infused sound and claps that establish the beat and separate it from the studio-oriented “Gap Tooth Smile.” That’s not to say that one song is more “concert-y.” However, if and when Keery gets an opportunity to play in NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, he should play “Back On You.”
And now for the near eponymous track “Crux,” which acts as the lyrical glue for the stylistically diverse album. The Wurlizer electric piano played by Javier Reyes is reminiscent of “Gap Tooth Smile,” while Keery’s vocals share the silky 70s sentimentality of “Golden Line.” It’s a bittersweet yet emotionally mature end of the line for the album.
What should we make of the 45 minutes of music that comprise The Crux? My verdict is that most of the songs are hits in the making. Keery has matured as an artist and is willing to make a big swing with musical diversity and experimentation. With that being said, the goal of centering the album’s theme is, like mentioned above, “a hotel housing guests who are all, in one way or another, at crossroads in their life.” This did not stick for me. Maybe I didn’t listen closely enough. However, what I heard was transition, both to and from good times. Perhaps it is the feeling people get when staying at a hotel filled with creatives, as Keery imagined. But that is for the listener to decide.
