On Sept. 16, “Stranger Things” star Joe Keery released his sophomore album, “DECIDE” under his musical persona, Djo. Keery started his music career as a drummer and guitarist for Post Animal, a Chicago-based indie rock band. He left in 2019 due to conflicts with acting commitments and released his first solo album, “Twenty Twenty,” the same year. Regardless of the increased popularity “Stranger Things” may give him, Keery puts a lot of effort into keeping his musical persona apart from his acting persona, often wearing a wig and sunglasses on stage.
]
“DECIDE” documents Keery’s reflection of the past and how he took it for granted and attempts to allow the listener to live Keery’s life through the past decade, as well as reminisce on their own. Throughout the album, Keery mainly sticks with his roots of psychedelic rock, but begins to experiment with new sound and throws in small tastes of new wave, ‘70s rock and ‘80s pop.
The album begins with “Runner,” which was a strange choice to start off the album — the lyrics don’t clearly reflect the album’s theme, and the instrumentals don’t show the growth seen so clearly throughout the remainder of the album. Although Keery takes so much care to separate his music persona from his acting one, he includes ‘80s-inspired pulses in “Runner,” making it sound like something straight out of “Stranger Things.”
Along with “Runner,” many other tracks throughout the album included ‘80s inspired pulses and similar repetition in the lyrics. Although “On and On,” “Go for It” and “Slither” were all worth a listen, they fail to contribute to the theme of the album and the repetitive lyrics come across as lazy songwriting.
“DECIDE” continues with “Gloom,” an upbeat track about trying to live in the moment but being ready to move on. “Gloom” is one of the best tracks from the album and seems to be a subtle nod to Talking Heads’ “Speaking in Tongues,” but unfortunately, Keery’s songwriting skills were not up for this track. While the instrumentals successfully pay tribute, the lyrics were nowhere near on par with them.
The sixth track on the album, “End of Beginning,” is easily the best song on the album and may even rival “Mortal Projections” on his freshman record as his greatest track. Although Keery isn’t normally described as a lyrical genius, this track is an exception to this and perfectly reflects theme and emotion, displaying his best writing yet. While it still includes the regular songwriting repetition that can be seen in most of the album’s tracks, more personal details can be seen in the lyrics, referencing Keery’s time in Chicago playing with Post Animal.
“This song has started now and you’re just finding out/Now isn’t that a laugh?/A major sacrifice, but clueless at the time/Enter, Caroline/Just trust me, you’ll be fine,” Keery sings.
Keery regularly uses auto-tune in order to achieve his signature neo-psychedelia sound, but “End of Beginning” lacks this, making the track feel real and raw. During the outro, Keery is basically yelling at the listener.
In its entirety, “DECIDE” is a solid album that shows talent and is a vast improvement from Keery’s freshman album. Although the experimenting of multiple genres shows major growth and even still more potential, the same cannot be said for Keery’s songwriting. “DECIDE” does not embody the overall theme to the extent it could have, due to the writing in the majority of the album’s songs. If Keery wants to continue to be successful, he needs to show more growth in his writing and back away from relatability, include more personal details and use less repetition.
