Hi, everyone. Halfthony Timetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Joji album, Piss in the Wind.

Here we have the newest album from singer, songwriter, Joji, once world famous content creator turned world famous musician. Even though his transition into music was received pretty warmly in the late 2010s, his progress, and I also think potential, has come to a grinding halt since the pandemic for some reason. He's grown increasingly elusive as well. There have even been recent interviews and promo bits that he has done with a fake Joji for some reason. But I suppose being cagey to some degree has always been a part of the Joji brand.

But toward the beginning, there was a point where it felt like Joji's fandom, his music, was just inescapable online. His moody, raw, simple ballads, blending elements of pop and RnB, were just perfect for a music landscape that was leaning increasingly into playlists that emphasize chill, vibey songs with a hint of ennui. Think, like, Flower Boy, Tyler, the Creator, Billie Eilish. An era of popular music that feels like a lifetime ago at this point.

And while I didn't really love Joji's debut album, I did like the ambition that he approached the follow-up with, Nectar. His 2020 album that featured a lot of bigger songs, bigger performances, bigger instrumentals. And while it wasn't perfect, it did show quite a bit of growth.

But it took him a few more years to follow this album up. And when Joji did that, we got Smithereens, a two-disc project that was really like an EP's worth of material. And it was like a pitiful collection of odds and ends with maybe two memorable songs among its tracks. A total regression, a complete disappointment. But many fans did leave this record talking about how, 'Oh, this is like his last one with 88 Rising, his label, and he's trying to finish things out with them before he moves on to something bigger and better and more substantial,' which there could be truth to that.

This new record is out via Palace Creek week, which, mind you, is Joji's own label. But if Joji was looking for a new direction and a new home to release his music on, he was in no rush to make that happen because it's been about four years since Smithereens now, but this album here does not sound like it took four years to make.

I spent a lot of time going into this album wondering what Piss in the Wind is going to add to Joji's catalog. Would he build upon what he was doing with Nectar or go into some other direction entirely? Well, in my opinion, while this record is nowhere near as thrown together or as pointless as Smithereens was, it does still feel like a regression of sorts, even if it is longer. Because here, the layered epic production and more built-out song structures of Nectar are swapped out in favor of tunes, instrumental palettes, and progressions that are more simplistic, basic, and plain. I would say derivative, too.

Unfortunately, moving backwards in this way also exposes that Joji's songwriting and singing hasn't really advanced all that much since his 2018 BALLADS 1 project, too. But in this tracklist's defense, there is the spare moment here and there where we do get a good performance, a genuinely good song.

"Past Won't Leave My Bed", which was a lead single to this thing, it's a great piano number, not the most original tune or chord progression in the world, sure, but it is a beautiful highlight that it seems like a decent amount of effort went into all the same.

And even if there is a lack of originality here, tracks like this are preferable to many other moments on this album that frankly just feel like demos or musical sketches that barely got complete in time for this album to come out. I'm talking about tracks like "Tarmac", like "Cigarette", also "Horses to Water", which feels like Joji trying to do a monotone rap track that goes nowhere fast. Also "Silhouette Man", which is almost insulting how something this thrown together, blatantly thrown together, somehow made it onto this album that it took four years to drop.

We also have cuts here where Joji is very clearly being shown up by his guests such as GIVEON, even Don Toliver. But as disappointing as that is somehow these tracks are more preferable to moments that just sound like a watered-down, more boring version of sounds and styles and artists that are already out here just putting out far superior work. Like, what are "Forehead Touch the Ground" or "CAN'T SEE SH*T IN THE CLUB", if not just worse versions of already existing James Blake songs?

Here and there, Joji also tries to juge up his sound with vaguely danceable beats, as well as production that comes across as super distorted, aggressive, it's inspired by a lot of what the underground is doing these days. But these ideas are not anything he explores enough to actually turn anything into gold, put his own spin on it, define it for himself in any form or fashion. It just feels like trend tourism.

As far as the final moments of the album are concerned, they are just as weak as the start of the album. The song "Strange Home", while there is something about the sentiment of this track, I appreciate in terms of the unease that Joji feels about where he is and running from what he's running from, running to what he's running to. Still, the booming 808s and super simple drums on this track just don't really feel like they fit the tune that he's trying to sing over them. Then after this, we're hit with a completely unceremonious closer.

Overall, we have a record that, yes, while it may be longer than Smithereens, much of the time it sounds just as pointless and low effort. It's sad because my hopes were high going into the album. Sure, I found the brevity of some of the singles to be a little disheartening, but I had maybe a hope, a lingering hope that maybe all these very short, basic songs would come together into a series of tracks that reinforce each other really well or all build on a vibe, a sound, a core message, a moment.

But no, this is very much not a record that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is a mess. It is fragmented. It is directionless. It is shockingly low effort for the amount of time it took for it to come out. It genuinely makes me wonder whether or not there was really any gas left in the tank for Joji at this point, which is why I'm feeling a strong two to a light 3 on this project.

Anthony Fantano, Joji, Forever.