Djo has picked up a lot of popularity over the past three years after his 2019 release “Twenty Twenty”. There is no doubt he will continue this trend with his newest album, “DECIDE”, released Sep. 16 of this year.
I think there is common trend among artists such as Djo, who is otherwise known as actor Joe Keery. Multi-talented and multi-expressive artists are simply enchanting.
Being able to express themselves through acting, directing, writing, or visual art only strengthens their ability to sing, perform, and compose. In “DECIDE” Joe Keery’s theatrical nature is really prominent– featuring various forms of spoken word and unusual audio clips.
Track Highlights
Generally, this album is really solid. In any release there will always be stronger songs than others, but I was really pleased by the composition of the entire album. It’s entirely very expressive and cohesive, while maintaining diversity within the tracks.
It’s starts off song with tracks “Runner” and “Gloom”. “Gloom” is certainly one of my favorites off the album. Although it doesn’t particularly have any experimental hooks, the proliferation within the lyrics and vocals sets an anticipation and excitement for the entire album.
“Undress you with my eyes, I’m ready to go / I measure up to you, I’m ready to go / I smoked my cigarettes, I’m ready to go”
The tone set in the first two tracks leads the listener to expect pretty vanilla indie pop songs for the remainder of the album, but I was happy to see Djo diverge from that sound immediately in some of the elements in “Half Life”.
Djo is really exploring audio collage in tracks “Half Life”, “Change”, “Is That All It Takes”, and “Go For It”. It’s clear Djo is pulling from multiple sources of inspiration.
He is also seen tapping into a 90’s sound, similar to artists such as Jamiroquai, in track “I Want Your Video”.
While also exploring more electronica genres, perhaps pulling inspiration from Daft Punk in tracks such as “Climax”.
I really appreciate his ending tracks, they conclude “DECIDE” in a perfectly theatrical and ominous tone.
It’s refreshing to hear Djo continue to build strength in his musical composition and vocals. I was impressed by his range of musical textures and variety of inspiration. I’m excited to see what he will be releasing in the future, I’m sure this album will continue to push him towards major success.
