Year-End Review: Joji’s Ballads 1
Joji glides through an array of sounds with his shimmering debut album — Ballads 1.
Ballads 1 is the debut album by 88rising superstar Joji — and prevails to be 2018’s best kept secret. Joji has been around for some time now previously as a popular Youtube personality, and now as a member of music collective 88rising. I’d first come across Joji through a friend after she played me his breakout single Will He from his first EP titled In Tongues. I wasn’t thoroughly impressed by his performance, but nevertheless Joji was now on my radar. It wasn’t until his performance on the second single of Ballads 1 — Slow Dancing In The Dark — that I fell in love with Joji. Slow Dancing In The Dark encapsulates what Joji was trying to do with this album perfectly. The track serves to be one of the only true ballads on the album and features a gut-wrenching and hauntingly epic performance from the musician — both vocally and in the production.
The production on this album does, however, see a few low points along the way. Lackluster production on album track Why Am I Still In LA and album opener Attention coupled by Joji’s normally monotone vocal performance leads to an immediate snooze fest until you reach the next song. There are, however, more production highlights than there are low points for Ballads 1. Yeah, Right — my personal favorite track on the album — features one of my favorite beats found on any album this year and is reminiscent of Joji’s first EP in it’s lyrics, but includes some of the poppier elements found in Ballads 1. The ad-libs at the end of the track, which Joji called in his Genius interview “sampling himself”, is an odd highlight of the album that keeps me dancing until the very end of Yeah, Right.
I’ll See You In 40 is another production highlight because — in all honesty — the beat of that song is next level. The way the song fills the room as it transitions from the airy ukulele that opens the track to a deep fast-paced world of synths and bass is an experience matched only by heaven. I’d previously skipped over this track for a while until I let it play by accident and it did not disappoint. The sole chorus on the track is quite poetic and has some of my favorite lyrics on Ballads 1.
I could feel the change (Feel the change)
The way you sing your song (The way you sing your song)
I could feel the waves (I could feel the waves)
You send from kingdom’s sun (You send from kingdom’s sun)
Some more lyrical highlights can be found on singles Test Drive and Wanted U. You can’t help but resonate with Joji when he sings “I’m looking for a long ride, she just wants a test drive.” Unrequited love makes for excellent music, but is a terrible feeling to feel. Don’t worry Joji, we’ve all been there. Wanted U comes after Test Drive and is a complete contrast to the previous track in it’s lyrical content as Joji croons out “I’ve been waiting my whole life to know I wanted you.” Wanted U exists in a world outside of a lot of the lyrical content found on Ballads 1 as sonically it sounds very hopeful, especially in its lyrics when Joji sings “and I promise I won’t lie, we’ll make it out alive.” Also, you can tell Joji is heavily inspired by stringed instruments on Ballads 1, but in particular guitars — as Wanted U hosts a blockbuster guitar solo at the end.
Other tracks such as the Clams Casino assisted single Can’t Get Over You and album track No Fun standout due to their very upbeat — but still minimal — production that sounds perfect for a car ride in the summer. These tracks help to show that Joji’s range is much more than just heavy beats backed by melancholic lyrics and vocals. Speaking of vocals, the only vocal assistance Joji gets on Ballads 1 is from rapper/singer Trippie Redd who — to put it bluntly — ruined what could’ve been a great song. R.I.P. is mostly Trippie Redd quite literally screaming into a microphone that he would die for his lover in a very Romeo and Juliet style fashion — accompanied by Joji on the hook. Had the track just been Joji’s vocals it would’ve made for a great interlude.
Overall, Ballads 1 is a glamorous debut album that takes a few missteps along the way such as in its features (I’m looking at you Trippie Redd), but makes up for it with it’s moody lyrical content and generally excellent production that showcases Joji’s ability to keep his audience feeling every emotion he felt when he recorded these songs.
