DJO Stands at The Crux
Djo – the musical project of actor / producer / songwriter Joe Keery known for his work in blockbuster projects as Stranger Things and Fargo – announces his highly anticipated new album The Crux. The follow-up to Djo's 2022 album DECIDE, which featured the blockbuster hit "End of Beginning”, The Crux will be released on April 4th via AWAL Recordings. Today, Djo released the first single “Basic Being Basic”. With its Oberheim OB-X8 synths and falsetto refrain, its final verses shrewdly skewer the (often online) tropes of modern day posturing. “It’s kind of a shot fired to anyone who's trying to be of the moment,” says Keery.
Listen to the song HERE.
The Crux was co-produced by Keery and his long-time collaborator Adam Thein. It's an album of impeccable craftsmanship. Unlike Keery’s previous albums - bedroom recordings centered around synths - The Crux spotlights lush guitars and instrumentation reminiscent of late 60’s and 70’s pop. It's an album full of loss and yearning, but also one full of wit and gratitude. The album was written all over the world in a particularly fertile period for Keery - where he was grappling with the transience of his other job, being untethered and away from his friends and family. But to make the album he settled into the legendary Electric Lady Studios in his adopted home of New York City. The Crux not only showcases his ambitious scope, but also his skills as a deft multi-instrumentalist and songwriter (all songs were written by Keery or in collaboration with Adam Thein).
What begins as a meditation on the dissolution of a relationship winds its way back to self-resilience, and a celebration and recognition of the importance of nurturing community. These themes are reflected in both his lyrics and in the collaborative spirit of the music, with contributions from his family and lifelong friends lending the album a warm energy mirroring the bonds at the record’s core. Although the songs are rich with specificity, the album plays like a movie soundtrack, where the listener can easily align with a character, situation, or emotion. And this is, in part, how Keery frames the album’s concept through its art - a collaboration with Neil Krug - as a hotel where all of its guests are transient, and at a spiritual or emotional crossroads.
