Music Reviews

George Miller, famous internet YouTube star turned proffesional artist, AKA Joji, was someone I never expected to like, After the colosall failure that was in my eyes Joji’s debut EP „In Tongues“, I pretty much wrote him off as another face in the ever expanding sad boy trap genre. But Joji came back swinging – with his 2018 single „Slow Dancing In The Dark“ he proved that he had potential – great potential in fact. The follow up album „Ballads 1“ didn’t necesarry meet the expectations that Slow Dancing set the bar for, but it still was a reasonable effort from Joji – more then In Tongues anyways. But now we’re here, on Joji’s second studio album „Nectar“.

Before I start to talk smack about Joji like I usually end up doing, I would like to just say, that this is EASILY Joji’s most profound, well-produced and admirable record to date. The singles tha dropped before the album’s release all showed that Joji is taking this whole music career thing really seriously and that he is taking the steps to become a better not only vocalist, but artist overall. „Sanctuary“ is a synth-driven 80s inspired ballad with some really sweet vocal harmonies and melodies. „Gimmie Love“ is your classic lo-fi Joji sad-boyish song with an accoustic twist in the second half, while „Daylight“ is a little pop tune with some amazing production choices from none other then „Diplo“. And don’t even get me started on „Run“ – that’s, in mz opinnion, easily Joji’s best song, period. But this is also the biggest sin that this album commits – releasing all the absolute best songs as singles before the albums’s release. Not gonna lie, I had some prettz big expectations for this album when it came out – but what we got wasn’t anything like what the singles promised. Instead, it’s an 18-track long lofi hip-hop album, when it could’ve been just 12-tracks long. Also when I say lofi hip-hop album, I REALLY mean that – at least half of the songs on here follow the absolute same formula and sound. And to be honest, it gets really tiring – like what do songs like „Nitrous“ or „High Hopes“ truly and honestly bring to the track list?

That being said, there are still some highlights in the tracklisting here and there: the opening track „Ew“ is a moody and powerful opener which sets the tone for the whole album really well. The following track „MODUS“ is the start of the lo-fi hip hop tracks trend on this album, though this one actually has some nice melodies and especially instrumentation. The same goes for the songs „Afterthought“ and „Mr. Hollywood“, which both again feed into the same formula as MODUS but actually have some substance – especially Mr. Hollywood, that song is just gorgeous. „Tick Tock“ is another intresting one – it starts with this corny low-pitched rapping that is luckily quickly over and this nice accoustic beat comes in, while Joji is giving us those nice vocal harmonies. Then there is the surprisingly crushing „Like You Do“, which is this piano ballad about one’s persons love being more then the love of all the others – „no one loves me like you do“. It’s definetly a beautiful moment in the album, but the album could really use some variety – the closest thing to that we get on „Pretty Boy“, which is easily the catchiest song on the whole album – the beat’s pretty simple, but it works in the song’s favour. Also Lil Yachty’s verse is surprisingly awesome, the two of them with Joji have some really nice chemistry. Finally the song „Your Man“, that closes the album off is a trendy EDM banger, which is a overall a nice send off to the whole thing.

Now there are a LOT of things I didn’t like about this album – some of the songs, like „Reanimator“, should’ve really just been longer and some other songs like „Upgrade“ should’ve been just cut completely. But while there is a lot to not like about this album, there is still a lot to enjoy here. And I can only commend Joji for trying new things and experimenting with his voice and his music aswell. As I said, I still think that this is Joji’s best realease yet and I can’t wait to see where he takes this next.

light 7/10