Joji - “Smithereens” Album Review
- Mason Rowley
- Nov 14, 2022
- 3 min read
Joji’s newest release shows the dangers of simplicity.
Release date: November 4th, 2022
88rising Records / Warner Records
Joji’s newest album, Smithereens, could be characterized as lean. Not good lean, not healthy; Christian Bale in The Machinist lean. It’s borderline starving, with its 23 minute runtime, which is a steep contrast from the comparatively bloated and unnaturally fattened Nectar. Yet, Smithereens proves a point about the nature of boring art: I’d rather have a slog that I remember than a barely finished, stretched thin mess like Smithereens.
The debut single from the record, “Glimpse of Us,” was initially a homerun in my eyes. A more mature Joji, quivering yet steadfast in the emotion of his voice, confidently going the oft-unexplored piano ballad route as a first single. I was enamored with it on first listen, and discovering it as I reconciled the slow dissolving of a long-term relationship didn’t help, but the more the track stuck around the more plastic it felt. The elegant piano, the heavenly harmonization towards the back half of the track, it all felt plastic. Sugar glass-like. Checking the credits, Joji, aka George Miller, has no actual credits in the creation of the song, and in hindsight it sticks out. It feels like it’s missing… something. Some singular 'Joji' punch that’ll knock my socks off and make me come around to it.
My favorite song on the tracklist is the second, “Feeling Like The End,” yet it, like the album, is entirely too short for its own good. It doesn’t even hit two minutes, has a thirty second buildup, and feels like it ends right as it’s kicking into its own high gear. This is a complaint I have with the entire second disk, which, by the way; its split into two disks for some reason.
Without the in-one-ear-and-out-the-other second half, Smithereens would serve well as a decent EP, a teaser for what would be to come for Joji’s next sprawling emotional journey. As it is, it feels almost like a substandard deluxe edition. Starting immediately with “NIGHT RIDER,” the songs feel less like tracks and more like demos; something Joji must have been aware of, considering the tracks have names like “BLAHBLAHBLAH DEMO,” “YUKON (INTERLUDE),” and “1AM FREESTYLE." The names, to me, feel non-committal and insecure, like a guy saying everything in a sarcastic tone so he can hide behind a 'just kidding' in case of a bad reaction. These tracks are all sub-two-and-a-half minutes and feel like wisps, like whispers in a tornado.
The best of these is probably “NIGHT RIDER,” mostly by virtue of being the most like a “real” song. The trap instrumentation and vocal-like synth really help flesh this song out, and Joji feels more alive and awake here than anywhere on the rest of the tracklist. If only this song was longer. “BLAHBLAHBLAH DEMO,” in contrast, is built on a guitar sample that feels out of place, especially on the poor breakdown halfway through the song. It feels unfinished, no duh, considering the name; But still I have to beg the question: If this track is just a demo, then why the hell would you release it?
There’s rumors circulating that this was a contractual obligation record; the “Endless” to what, if you follow the metaphor, would be Joji’s “Blonde.” I don’t think that’s happening, considering we’re almost two weeks removed from Smithereens’ release and this seems to be the defense any artist is automatically awarded whenever they have a lackluster release, but I get the appeal of it. At a certain point, though, one must call the duck a duck. I hope whatever comes after Smithereens for Joji smells less of glue and deadlines.
Author: Mason Rowley
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