Album Review: Piss In The Wind by Joji

Words: Gethin Marshall

Joji’s return is as melodic and melancholy as ever, but repetitive songwriting and

unfinished tracks leave something missing Four years is a long time, especially in the fast paced world of the music business. In the world of RnB, however, fans have to be much more prepared to experience long gaps between releases; 14 years separate the late, great D’Angelo’s Voodoo (2000) and Black Messiah (2014), and Maxwell’s last two albums were released seven years apart, with a third in the trilogy potentially still in the works a decade later. Little needs to be said about the cases of Erykah Badu and Frank Ocean, whose fans may still be waiting for new material when the sun burns up.

Still, long periods of development have often meant heightened results in this genre, and the singles released for Joji’s new album certainly had fans hopeful that this would once again be the case. Primarily, the first single and opening track of the album, PIXELATED KISSES, gives the impression that this new release will be a dirtier and more experimental bass-heavy

development of Joji’s sound. The only warning sign is the length of the song, clocking in at under two minutes with very little variation through that time. This issue is only worsened by the second single, If It Only Gets Better, which is barely over a minute long, but this time with a much more acoustic sound. The final three singles (Past Won’t Leave My Bed, LOVE YOU LESS, and Last of a Dying Breed) are much more promising lengths, with more development throughout each track, but I was admittedly disappointed in the lack of progression of new sounds like in PIXELATED KISSES.

Still, it’s not a bad preview for a new Joji project, and a 21-song tracklist gave me some hope for new experimentation.

Unfortunately, the second track, Cigarette, is a warning that this may not be coming; as

usual with Joji, the vocals are melodic, emotional and mournful, but outside of some reasonable production there is very little of note going on in this track. Again, it suffers from limitations due to its short runtime, with very little change and a looping instrumental, and though the vocals are nice there isn’t much depth in the angsty lyrics. The short track lengths are definitely a theme of the album, with those 21 tracks coming in at just under 46 minutes total, with an average song length of a little over two minutes. Because of this, many songs feel unfinished and repetitive, leaving the album both bloated and without substance at the same time.

The other issue is the lack of variation in his sound on this album; there is very little

further experimentation with the distorted sound of PIXELATED KISSES, with the only song to really come close being the 14th track, Sojourn- easily the best of the non-singles on the record. This is, really, a testament to how this project is nearly there, but just not quite. The other disappointment is that, despite the heavier reliance on his already-established sound, none of the ‘safer’ tracks on this record have the same depth of feeling as tracks from previous releases, and especially not as much as Glimpse of Us, the viral top-10 hit from his 2022 album SMITHEREENS.

Overall, despite the four year wait, it seems as though somehow not enough time has

been put into this album. There is certainly potential here, and Joji has proved previously that

there is quality in his artistry, but this makes the disappointment of Piss In The Wind even heavier.