Is it “Basic Being Basic”? Djo who is known as Steve Harrington in the Netflix Original show, “Stranger Things” just came out with his new album “The Crux” on April 4.
He had his hit song, “End Of Beginning” that had gone viral in 2024; Will this new album be able to follow it up? He had released two songs before the whole album came out which were, “Basic Being Basic” and “Delete Ya.”
Both songs were on the radio and great hits. The most popular song on “The Crux” album is “Basic Being Basic” with 53,000 page views. This album really stays true to his sound. Djo had been recording his album during the production of “Stranger Things” season five.
His album cover is unique and has a cool look to it. It has a bunch of different people and little details that you may never notice.
The opening for the album is “Lonesome Is A State Of Mind,” which really captures the essence of yacht rock while at the same time maintaining a somber and a love-stricken approach to the waning guitar strings that are ripping through the background. The central concept of the album is “a hotel housing guests who are all, in one way or another, at crossroads in their life.”
Something Joe Keery said in an interview was, “It had been so long since I used the acoustic guitar as my base. It’ll show itself in the music. It’s not a big acoustic album, but it starts with those building blocks.”
He was also talking about how he is using more acoustic, and even earthy sounds for the album. You can tell in this new album that he is pulling his electro-pop roots that are in his past albums, ‘Twenty Twenty” and “DECIDE.” In “The Crux”, Joe Keery talks about the intersection between the ever-present anxiety that comes with the changes of adulthood also where the catharsis comes from becoming one’s truest self.
His eighth track on the album is called, “Charlie’s Garden”. It is written about Charlie Heaton (Johthan from the show “Stranger Things”) and his garden. The song “Crux”, which is the final track in the album with 12 total songs, provides a resolution to Keery’s unease and his anxiety about the ever-changing world he’s surrounded by.
The lyrics in this song emphasize a sense of peace in knowing vulnerability. And how it is the only way to receive emotional fulfillment and sort of personal growth in all aspects of life. This song can be related to and people can connect to it.
The instrumental is perfect, where his voice can take the center stage in a way where it brings the whole album in a full circle.
Where it’s from a place of disorder and pain to the tranquility that really comes from growing up, he then concludes the story of this album in this cumulative final track. The piano in the beginning of “Golden Line” really gives an old school sound to it where it’s unique.