Nectar: Joji

09/25/20

11:59 PM

To be Frank, this album is pretty weird.

It came at a weird time, I’m not completely sure what it’s about, I don’t know if it feels completely right, and so it’s just a confusing piece of work that is neither really black OR white; Joji Enter stage left.

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Following his breakout debut BALLADS 1, George Kusunoki Miller’s cult following gained considerable amounts of momentum as someone who seemed to be the purest of all internet trolls turns solemn, somber, and sincere.

Nectar follows suit. The album begins with a few preludes that feels like the audial equivalence of the inability to fall asleep at 4:16 AM, feeling drowned out by your thoughts— the level where Joji looks to be the most noteworthy in a sense. The irony between his personas are stark, yet the satirical acts thrive as perhaps the complexity of the human state of being can be observed behind all the idiocy.

Probably not though, let’s be honest: Filthy Frank, Pink Guy, Salamander Man, Lord Chin Chin, and Joji all play off of stupidity and irony, and the musical themes of Joji are of no exception, and while BALLADS 1 and prior works mainly depict a more depressive scheme throughout, Nectar attempts to slowly find a more animated plane during its duration.

The emotional and physical metastacity of this album accounts for both the pros and cons of this album. Starting with negatives, It really is all over the place. The overall organization could be refined; rather than motioning fluidly between tracks, the transition from song to song sometimes seem adversely fickle and abrupt. As opposed to having a dynamic through the album, the tracks shuffle between seemingly polar moods at times, creating a possibility for listeners to be distracted by the lack of subtlety. Continuing to extrapolate on organization and track listings, it did feel like the the totality of the record could have been trimmed down a bit. At 18 tracks spanning through 53 minutes, Nectar’s issue with inconsistency could also be fueled by the inclusion of more dated singles that don’t quite fit the overall imagery that the album paints.

Past the negatives, the album is full of strong points— it’s weird to think that Joji has an ingenious aptitude for musicality, but he does. Each individual track is produced skillfully and is cohesive in its components. The choices for instrumentation composition in production is uniquely constructed; not overdone, nor hollow, the general makeup of Joji’s sound is formed by Eastern influences conjoined with popular styles of music. In comparison to BALLADS 1, which is almost entirely sobering and dark in its aesthetic, Nectar shows room for a little bit more liveliness and dynamic. With the usage of Classical influences fragmented between contemporary arrangements, the sexiness of the tonal atmosphere enhances the incredibly sleek tone of the album. The lyrical diplomacy between emotion and man is continued in this album as well, doing well to not stray to far from a successful ingredient from the previous album.

No idea as to why the album is titled Nectar, but it’s sweet, it’s heavy, and it’s pure.

Listen to the album below:

Nectar

BALLADS 1: Joji

11/16/18

11:55 PM

Surprising, in the most pleasant way.

One of 88rising’s preeminent artists, George Miller, otherwise known as Filthy Frank, Pink Guy, and Joji, released BALLADS 1 on October 26th, 2018. In his past works as youtube troll and viral personality as Filthy Frank to a bizarre comic rapper Pink Guy, Miller often plays with social mediums and musical platforms to gain viral status on the internet. Going off of his preexisting persona as an entertainer, the artist Joji becomes a stark contrast to his past selves, dropping the facetious acts to portray a more serious and seemingly sober character.

It’s like that one friend that nobody takes serious until they get genuine, then everybody just goes, “whaaaaaaaaaaaaa…?”

BALLADS 1 is a play off of ballads (wow who would’ve guessed?), adding his own personality into a established genre of music to form a new sound. Joji’s latest album can be seen as '“sadboi” music, but really becomes a personal memorandum of heartache and lovesickness, as well as loneliness and realizations of disconnect. The gritty, yet simplistic production and the raw emotion emanating from his voice adds an eerie austerity to what seems to be a personal remembrance to past relationships and his newfound lifestyles.

The split-screen outlook evident in his character throughout his album and also in his career is put on display for anyone to understand as they dig into the lyrics, “Give me reasons we should be complete/ You should be with him, I can’t compete” in “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” shows just a glimpse of his struggles with being lonely, as he compares his torn state as a metaphor of slow dancing in the dark (wow who would’ve thought?).

The element of duality is so apparent in this album, from being in love to longing, friendships turning into fake friends, the way that Joji bounces from one to the other is admittedly depressing, yet amusing and delicate. The forlorn content is only reinforced by the production— the deep and ringing bass, the calming wave-like synths, and piano instrumentation that has proved to be traditional to the ballad genre. Between production and writing, BALLADS 1 becomes a pensive piece of work to the artist Joji.

This album seems to be a highlight for Joji’s career as he creates a musical remnant from his head and heart, because (filthy)frankly, beneath every obnoxious and self-pleasing troll, there lies a sadboi that just wants to be genuine to themselves— just waiting for the platform and the right heartbreak to rely on.

Listen to the album below:

BALLADS 1