Music Review: Smithereens

My favorite song of all time was released November 4th, 2022. It was released by Joji, who went under the mantle of Filthy Frank for years as an entertainment Youtuber, then he started doing music in 2010. He did not start using the mantle of Joji until 2016 with album Chloe Burbank that has been taken off streaming with popular songs like Don’t Rain on Me, and Fear and Misery.
My favorite song prior to this was Scared of Lonely by Beyoncé, but it later changed to track 9 of the 3rd studio album by Joji, Smithereens. The singles were Glimpse of Us, Yukon, and Die for You. Glimpse of Us was a well performing piano ballad, a bit overrated if you ask me. I like the song but the number of times it was played sent me for a loop. Seeing it on every platform, on every video, then hearing it on the radio while walking, it was a solid ballad with repetitive lyrics about heartbreak, and Joji wanting his former lover to leave their new partner to come back to him.
The second single, Yukon was an upbeat song with unrepentant lyrics about his current uncertainty of his future. All he was certain of was the fact that he did not want to be around anymore. He knew he did not want to be around his former lover anymore. A respectable ideal. He also talks about his record label indirectly with the lines, “empty choir, operated from above, my hands will be their hands until I’m free.”
The third single was another slow piano ballad, but it had better vocals and less repetitive lyrics, being about how saddened he would still die for his ex-lover. He says he has not slept well since they started, and was glad to see her again, and this song performed decently well. The second song on disk 1 is a skip, not worth listening to, and it did not grow on me, over my thousands of times from listening to this album.
Song 4 is Before the Day is over, this song used to be a skip in my book, but after many listens it grew on me. Becoming one of my favorites with the use of the inner voice was underrated by me, and because I have heard it now, it has easily become one of my favorite pieces on the album. Dissolve sucks, unless you skip the first half, then it is amazing, but the first half is just dull and boring. Track 1 of Disk 2 is a !
In this … album if you will. Disk 2 carries a lighter more pop like vibe, while Disk 1 carries a heavier sadder vibe to it. Night Rider with its up paced beat and lyrics about how Joji is “burning and fully blazing,’ while waiting for better days while saying he does not care is an interesting choice of lyrics. Track 2 of Disk 2 being BLAH BLAH BLAH demo, is boring, not really a bad song, just average pop radio chart topper tunes. Track 4 of Disk 2, being my favorite song of all time, with me having streamed it over 100 thousand times. With the start of the beat rolling to the name relating to the lyrics, to the lyrics themselves, to the well-timed usage of cutting the beat, it is simply perfect. The usage of backing vocals that take the main stage when the beat is cut, to the beat itself, and the name it is just the peak of alternative music. The song links back to the lyrics due to the lyrics being about feelings of loneliness.
If played with the last song, which the video was accompanied by bright visuals, and you put the vibe side by side with 1AM FREESTYLE, it is intended to be how Joji is feeling during night and day. Joji shows uncertainty and toughness during the day, but really wants his ex back by night. The beat is great and is cut at the right time. It does have a shorter runtime, and would fit better as disk 1 track 2, due to the similarity to Glimpse of Us and Die for You, but it makes far more sense as the album ender than as filler song between 2 hits.
I think Disk 1 being sad then Disk 2 being happy just for it to go back to being sad truly shows exactly how dealing with a break-up feels. He was sad, then he tried feigning toughness, only to be left by himself in the end and have to deal with his actual emotions at the end of the day.