The Crux by Djo | Album Review

the third album from the Stranger Things star

With the recent viral success of Djo’s last album, and the sparse releases of hit TV show Stranger Things, my excitement around this album grew significantly when I heard it was coming. DECIDE, released in 2022 (an already incredible year of music), was one of my favorite albums of that year and still hits the spot when I’m looking for some weird electro-grit synth soft rock. “End of Beginning” went viral in 2024, sort of signifying a breach of water moment for Joe Keery, who is largely defined by the role of Steve in Stranger Things.

“It was a boost of confidence and a good shot in the arm,” he told Apple Music in an interview. That was all he needed to deep dive into an even weirder world of music in his third album, The Crux, that originated from his last album. Take the cover art for an initial example. It has this weird sheen to it, almost AI-like. The sharpness of the details, particularly the building, imprinted against a cloudless, blue sky almost mute the controlled chaos of the middle and bottom portions of the cover. There are people, motion, in every direction and a long look finds more details than one could count.

The rain cloud above a woman’s head, the burglar arising from a manhole, the guy falling out of the window, a shaggy Joe Keery dead center, the album title as a hotel, and even the man in the bottom left corner who merely seems like a passerby in the staging of this photo all add to this innate absurdity that doesn’t seem to exist in album covers anymore. Considering the wide range of sounds exhibited in The Crux, the cover seems fitting.

Opening with “Lonesome Is A State of Mind,” Djo captures the essence of yacht rock while maintaining a somber and love-stricken approach to the waning guitar strings ripping through the background. The slight vocal filter and hush introduces this softness that felt absent in DECIDE, an album where the sureness and precision of the production overcame any sense of vulnerability. The pining and almost dissonance of the chorus — “Thought that you were on my side/Lonesome is a state of mind,” — is punctuated by the easy-going delivery of the song’s motif, “No, I won’t be lonely anymore.”

The avalanche of synth and cascading of beats and vocal modifiers creates an experience that is fleeting, hence the nature and theme of the song. However, this soundscape is quickly abandoned for an electro-theque in the next track, that is reminiscent of Devo in a way. While the arrangement is interesting with all sorts of sounds coming at you from all angles, the songwriting isn’t as particularly striking as the first track. It could be the point considering the name — “Basic Being Basic.”

I appreciate how Djo is so capable of replicating his influences. He is clearly influenced by 70’s and 80’s rock music and blends it so well with a modern twist and production techniques. “Link” sounds like it would’ve been right at home 40 years ago. As such, it calls home this nostalgia that an older generation would love. It feels like a product of Grease and every other greasy greaser movie to exist, and at times, the character that Djo portrays lends to that image with the slicked back hair and leather or denim jacket.

Similarly, “Potion” sounds like he chewed up Fleetwood Mac, packed them in his lip, and spit it out in the present. That being said, I’m not particularly drawn to this sort of music, though, I can appreciate the reverence in this era of music. I find “Potion” to be a bit sleepy and haphazardly written. The song doesn’t do Keery’s voice any favors, though he does have a better range than one would imagine.

Unfortunately, the meat of this album feels a bit vacuous. Tracks 5-9 all feel relatively the same and hardly any track sticks out above the others. The most interesting of the run is “Charlie’s Garden,” which houses some of the more sonically pleasing arrangements alongside a contribution from co-star Charlie Heaton. The piano pondering in the back, alongside the slick bass, complement the higher registers of Keery’s voice as it floats in between other arrangements of whistles, organs, the well-placed drum sections, and horns filling the backend of the track. Additionally, this sort of song, as was the case for some of Twenty Twenty, alludes to the lineation between the persona of the band and Joe Keery’s character in Stranger Things as they seem to occupy the same temporal space.

Only as we approach the last three tracks of the album am I surprised by its contents. “Golden Line” opens with a soft piano and a choir-like arrangement of Djo’s voice pining on trust and love. Thematically, the song reminds me of “Fine Line” by Harry Styles in its approach. The reverence of this inherent standard, the heralded “line,” speaks to the respect of non-verbal, or more importantly, emotional, communication humans are capable of. Djo’s voice here, backed by a divine crash of violin strings, finally illuminates my ears.

To further explore that divinity, the following track — “Back On You”— opens with actual choir arrangements that are quickly juxtaposed with the grimy, electric guitar riffs filling in vocal breaks. The call and respond style of the chorus feels like a “Sweet Caroline” nod and the waxing and waning of the vocal performance is well-balanced as the choir and guitar eventually take over completely. Combining all the elements that are scattered throughout the album finally creates an experience worth trudging through the middle part of The Crux.

The Crux doesn’t feel particularly imaginative. I had similar thoughts on Djo’s debut, Twenty Twenty. At times it felt strictly like an homage tape but with the clean cut tools of today. Part of what made that older music a bit more sparkly were the inexact measures of its conception. Here, it’s relatively easy to decipher the means of the product placed before me and to see he picks and chooses to implement certain influences. Don’t get me wrong, there are some interesting bits here and there, but nothing truly groundbreaking or experimental. It doesn’t help that I’m not a sucker for obvious Beatles, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Eagles products.

Rating: 6.3/10
Favorite Tracks: Golden Line, Lonesome Is A State of Mind, Charlie’s Garden