The well-known artist Joji, originally made his debut with the character Pink Guy, who made songs, which were upbeat and energetic. Recently, Joji made a switch to slower-tempo songs, with songs like Slow Dancing in the Dark, Gimme Love and Glimpse of Us featured on the social media platform, Tiktok.

Joji’s style of music has created a popular fanbase, as the slow tempo of his more popular songs blends smoothly with his voice. 

His newest album, SMITHEREENS, was released on November 4th, 2022. This is my overall ranking of the album, SMITHEREENS. 

1. Glimpse of Us
2. Die For You
3. Before the Day is Over
4. YUKON (interlude)
5. BLAHBLAHBLAH (demo)
6. 1 AM FREESTYLE
7. Feeling Like The End
8. Dissolve
9. NIGHTRIDER

As someone who has been a fan of Joji since his Pink Guy days, I had pretty high expectations for this album. This soon fell short, as this album did not meet the expectations I had previously had with past albums. Although he mentioned that this album was a glimpse of a new music style he was trying, I was not a fan. The higher upbeat songs felt bland and repetitive, and the overall production just did not fit his voice.  However, I had a few songs that I thoroughly enjoyed, which ranked high in my ratings. This is my review of my top three songs from SMITHEREENS. 

1) Glimpse of Us

This song quickly blew up on Tiktok, however, when I heard it back in June, I immediately was a fan. This song was originally released as a single but was included in this album. I enjoyed the overall production of this, and his voice matches the soft-spoken lyricism in this song. The lyrics set up a unique visual, and Joji was able to create a vision with this song. There was raw emotion within this song, and it showed. Also, the overall flow and transitions truly made this song better. I rated this song a 9/10, being #1 on my ranking list.

2) Die For You

This song was a CLOSE number one. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this song. The lyricism was genius, and Joji told a story with these lyrics. There was a good variety of his music styles combined into this song, which is something I enjoyed. I like his inclusion of the newer music style, combined with his older style. The transitions and flow were also flawless and also brought the song together. The only reason this song did not receive the number-one spot was because of the bridge. I was not a fan of the bridge at all, and it seemed quite random to the rest of the song. Overall though, I was very pleased with this song and gave it a 9/10.

3) Before The Day Is Over

I also enjoyed the lyrics of this song. With Joji’s slower songs, his lyrics tend to have a deeper meaning and seem more emotional, compared to his upbeat songs. I usually cannot understand what he is saying with his higher-tempo songs. I liked the beat of this song, although the repetition got quite monotonous after a while. Just like the other songs, I liked the transitions and flow of this song, and I believe that Joji’s production of transitions is a strong suit of his, and it is impressive. I also liked the bridge on this song, however, the repetition and slightly faster tempo put this song at the number three spot with an 8/10 rating.

Although this album was not my favorite and did not meet my expectations. I still think it is not a half-bad album, considering Joji has been a musician who has sung slower tempo songs for years, and it can be hard adjusting to newer music styles.