The Crux by Djo: Album Review

On April 4, 2025, Djo dropped an album that changed the course of human history.**

**my Spotify Wrapped

Back cover of the vinyl

I’m just gonna say it. Best Album of 2025 So Far. Listened to it since Day 1 and I still stand by this being a uniquely stand-out album that changes you, and your experience with the artist, and you only experience maybe once every couple of years if that (I will say Fontaines D.C.’s Romance also felt this way last year but that’s for another time).

Tracklist:

Here’s my (current—this is the third iteration already) personal ranking of each song on the album.

1	Egg
2	Golden Line
3	Potion
4	Charlie’s Garden
5	Basic Being Basic
6	Gap Tooth Smile
7	Lonesome Is a State of Mind
8	Back on You
9	Fly
10	Delete Ya
11	Link
12	Crux

Track by Track Review by Ranking:

12. Crux

I do love this song. Last on the list just means it didn’t impact my interpretation of the album as much as some of the others did. But this album is honestly becoming one of my favorites, so it’s almost splitting hairs in the ranking.

I will say, the way he incorporates so much grand piano grandeur throughout the album ’til the end, is one of the main reasons I’ve come to love this album so much. In the first of many times I bring this up today—it’s very Paul. A lovely end to an overall thrilling album.

11. Link

Real. Graduated college exactly a year ago… This song describes the past year of my life pretty well. As fun as this is to sing, I still feel it doesn’t contain as much pizzaz as some of the other songs do.

It does feel like the point where the hero crosses the threshold into the unknown, leading to the rest of the album.

10. Delete Ya

This is a slow song about moving on. I know it’s one of the singles, but, to me, it feels a bit too indie-leaning in a way where the song lacks a rise and drop. The pace is quite level throughout, feeling like your life passing past you in a long blur as you try to move forward. Another in-between song.

9. Fly

I do feel like I’m flying while listening to this one. It’s a great night drive song. Feels like I’m on the flight home after graduating college.

**Note: Let’s just say, most of my personal connections to the songs are based on changing phases of life rather than relationships, lol.

8. Back on You

At first, I didn’t think much of this song and just rated it kinda low. Yes, I did still rank it quite low, but don’t get me wrong, I like this song more and more these days and listen to it more than some of the higher-ranked songs now. I think the fact he was able to write a song on platonic and sibling love that impacts you as much as romantic love songs we’re so used to hearing is quite a feat in and of itself. It’s an upbeat feel-good song that reminds you of the support you can have, and trust and joy with the people you take for granted. Actually, it reminds you to acknowledge those feelings to the people around you who you love in non-romantic ways as much as you would for a romantic partner.

I think what used to turn me off from this song was the beginning chorus as it felt it went on for a bit too long, so I’d just skip the song entirely. But now, it feels more like a concert-ready song (as I’ll discuss later ;)) with a choral introduction as the band gets ready for the final song. It feels like a kind of song a rock star would release at the end of their peak. Like a “thanks for coming out” kinda song. And that’s just fun.

7. Lonesome is a State of Mind

I’ll Try Anything Once – Julian Casablancas

(The first song I fell in love with.)

6. Gap Tooth Smile

Oh, to have someone write a song about you like this! Most fun song to dance and sing to (especially seeing him live). Very Queen-esque ofc. Also, who else can take, like, 30 seconds to just count what I’ve presumed was his age at the time of the breakup. Now, that’s songwriting.

This song is a great mood-lifter.

5. Basic Being Basic

If you watched A24’s Opus the other month, well, this is what I think is the song that everyone gets obsessed with and forms a cult around, so. It’s just so catchy!

I didn’t think much of it when it dropped as a single before, but this is easily my most played song from the album. It feels like he calls me out with every word and it’s so funny and real. It makes me respect him a lot as I heard he thought the song was gonna be taken too harshly and almost didn’t add it to the album, so clearly this is him being bold and calling people out—as he should!

4. Charlie’s Garden

This one might be my personal favorite from the album. Since the first time I heard it, I felt the resurgence of Sgt. Pepper’s, specifically Djo’s take on A Day In The Life. It’s so fun. And the evolution of the song is so pleasing to follow. I feel like this is the first song from the album where I noticed his real singing ability. This song establishes a perfect vibe to follow for the rest of the album and later Beatles-esque songs.

Even though I compare it to the Beatles, he puts his own flair into the song bringing in the electronic elements we’ve seen since Twenty Twenty, making the song fully his own.

Don’t tell me you don’t get giddy and start skipping to work to this one. Okay, well I do.

3. Potion

I could say a lot about this one. It’s genuinely beautifully written and honestly makes me yearn for a relationship. It’s so gentle and pure and shows us a glimpse of his heart that also feels very Paul-McCartney-writing-Goodbye-and-also-half-of-the-White-Album.

The Jimmy Kimmel performance got me.

I’ll try for all of my life just to find someone who leaves on the light for me

2. Golden Line

I’m gonna bring it up again but this song is the most Paul-style song on the album to me (Golden Slumbers). But this is all in a good way. If you want a good cry in bed this is it. I wish he would play this live so he could watch us all cry. It seems like the most personal song from The Crux, I think. I’m a sucker for this kind of song so I will say that does play into my rating, but why shouldn’t it? Pure, deep love in a song.

Yes, it’s true, I do it all for you…
(Time can give) Can give
(And life can take) Take away
(Each and evеry day)
Yes, it’s true, I do it all for you

1. Egg

Most incredible song on the album. I initially had ranked this 9th after the first week of listening, but as time passed and I focused more time on it after hearing people really resonate with it, it’s like I suddenly felt the real depth and realism in its songwriting. I tend not to pay attention to the lyrics too closely when first listening to songs and just focus on the overall feeling I get from them, until, you know, eventually I learn the lyrics and figure out the depth goes 100 feet deeper than I thought. I think it’s the way he delivers the words in that last epic section of the song, when you feel him most vulnerable. It especially hits when you listen to it with his Stranger Things fame in mind, as you truly realize the effect its had on him and the rest of the cast mentally and emotionally (and in other songs physically). You hear him with a desperation to break free and be able to separate his connection to the show and his musical career, as well as the general feelings of a, then, 29-year-old American man facing his manhood and the era of turning 30 and the more real, grounded love and heartbreak and life that really takes hold by that age. As many of the songs from this album, I feel called out in this one, and it’s why I assume a lot of people connect with this song as much as I do. Even at my ripe age of 23, things start to become more and more “real” and you really have to face yourself as I’ve experienced so far in my twenties. You start to see who you actually are, and I figure by 29, or 33 as Keery just turned, everything is supposed to set in place, beliefs and experiences “have” shaped you and now this is the life you are living, after passing the exposition of your life. But of course, we yearn to change and become new people every day and don’t want to fall into the monotony everyone else falls to at some point, and you just keep running, hoping there’s more—to life and to you.

In terms of the song’s shape, it definitely feels more Tame Impala’s One More Hour-inspired while still maintaining that epic Paul feeling brought about by the many Beatles-type songs I’ve mentioned earlier. Listening to the album in order (which I assume you always do at least the first few times you find a new album because that is the only correct way to listen to music), this is the point in which Djo gives us a new layer of himself, building it up a bit since Link, and shows us how he’s feeling about himself in this inner climax which later expands into his different relationships through songs like Fly, Golden Line, and Back on You.

This song is a game-changer.

If you don’t start screaming the words every time you listen to the ending while walking home in Brooklyn, I think you need to give it another go.

Back in the shell, my life in the cave
People go by, I smile and wave
But deep down inside, there’s always that fear
That I’m not enough, I seem cavalier
But it’s all an act, I’m cold ’cause I’m weak
And deep down inside, there’s nothing unique
But man is a mold and nothing is new
So why not release and let it come through?
I’m fighting the flame, I’m gasping for air
I’m back as a big man with panache and flair
Back to the egg, it’s crimson and gold (Crimson and gold)
I’ll follow the rules and do what I’m told
Can one be great? Can one be kind?
When history shows, they’re not intertwined
So what will you choose, your heart or your pride?
Could you really be so self-satisfied?

[Chorus]
I’m crawling out of my skin
Saw me through the eyes of the world
Could you really be that self-satisfied?
Is that you? (I’m crawling out of my skin)
Is that the child who’s afraid in you? (Saw me through the eyes of)
Stop, is that you? (The world)

Overall Consensus:

The narrative of The Crux is really easy to follow and doesn’t venture into anything too experimental or out-of-reach by most. It’s beautiful, heart-breaking at times, and just fun.

Djo is bringing back classic rock themes into alt music, and with his mainstream reach, he could be altering the future of pop music.

Go listen to it. I promise you it’s worth it.

Rating: 9.5/10