by Alex Goode
First off, stream my new single "End of the Road", please and thank you. Secondly, hi. It has been a while since the Oliver Tree review, and I'm sorry about that. I've been away working on an album, which will be out on October 9th, but I've decided to come through with new blogs for a special occasion. Two artists that I really like, Joji and Machine Gun Kelly, released new albums on September 25th, the same day I released my new single. Joji dropped Nectar, and Machine Gun Kelly dropped Tickets to My Downfall. These are two albums that I was highly anticipating, so I decided I'd take some time and review both of them. I'll start with Nectar, because that was the one I listened to first. Plus, it's the longer of the two, so it's probably better to do this one first anyway. Let's take a dip into Nectar.
Joji, YouTuber turned pop sensation, has returned with his second full-length studio LP, following his 2017 EP In Tongues and his 2018 album BALLADS 1. Both of which are projects I very much enjoy despite their flaws, and so I was heavily looking forward to the release of Nectar. I liked all of the singles from it for the most part, it was looking like the full album was gonna be great. And, yeah. I was right. Nectar is Joji's best release yet, in my opinion. The opening track, "Ew", is a really good starting point. The pianos, the strings, Joji's gorgeous vocals. This song sets the mood of the album perfectly. The only thing holding it back for me is the chorus where Joji goes into his falsetto. I don't think it sounds as clean here as it does in previous tracks like "Slow Dancing", "Test Drive", or certain Pink Guy songs. The way the track ends is pretty odd, though. The piano sounds like it's slowly being taken out of tune as the outro plays out. I like it, but it's kind of an odd choice. If you aren't a fan of this more string-heavy Joji sound, then you probably won't like this album. A common theme with this record is strings and pianos, there's very little trap influence to be heard with a lot of these songs. This means that the initial sad, low-fi, heartbreak bangers vibe Joji initially made a name for himself with on releases like In Tongues and parts of BALLADS is lost, but I'd argue that that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If it means we get more tracks like "Ew" and "MODUS", I'm all for it.
It's very difficult to talk about Nectar without mentioning the singles. For instance, you have the Diplo collaboration that is "Daylight". I really like this song. The lyrics are nice, Joji's voice sounds great, the beat is groovy and well-produced, the mix is perfect. I love the guitar plucks you hear throughout, and the synths on the chorus sound awesome. It transitions very nicely into "Upgrade", as well, so much so that I was questioning at first whether or not it was the same song at first. Another single off of this album that I really liked is "Sanctuary". It features one of the best vocal performances of Joji's entire career so far, a supremely catchy chorus, a nice chilled out instrumental. The lyrics are a little underdeveloped at times, mostly in the verses, but they're still serviceable. And then you have "Gimme Love", which is a mixed bag for me. I can't deny that the "GIMME GIMME LOVE, GIIIIME GIMME LOVE" hook is otherworldly catchy, but that's really the only thing I get out of the first half. The instrumental sounds very bland, Joji's vocals aren't memorable, and the lyrics are a little sloppy in the first half, but oh my god. When that beat switch happens, "Gimme Love" soars into the stratosphere. Why couldn't the whole song sound like that? The synths, the layered vocals, the high notes, this sounds beautiful. Where was that before? My favorite single, and quite possibly my favorite Joji song outright, is "Run". The lyrics are very well-written, Joji gives one of his best vocal performances ever, the guitars on this track sound slick, and the chorus is awesome. I really wish I had written the vocal runs Joji does when he says the title of the track. There's even a pretty sweet guitar solo at the end, this song rock, and his falsetto on the chorus sounds really pretty. It's kind of a shame that playing Filthy Frank for as long as he did grinded his vocal chords into dust, because his singing voice is really lovely.
There's parts of Nectar that I don't really like as much as the rest of the project, though. The first half of "Gimme Love" as I've mentioned, but I'm also not too fond of "777". The mix is a little wonky, the beat isn't memorable in the slightest, the falsetto backup vocals sound like something Pink Guy would sing to mock mainstream singers, Joji's ad-libs are placed in weird spots that make it sound like he's interrupting himself. This weird ad-lib placement shows up again on "MODUS", and I think "High Hopes" is kinda boring. "Upgrade" is pretty, and kinda gives me Chloe Burbank vibes, but it's way too short. I feel like "Like You Do", while I do enjoy that song quite a bit, tries way too hard to be the emotional heartbreak banger that In Tongues was full of. I don't think it quite reaches the level of emotion that "Will He" or "Demons" brings out in me, but I do enjoy the song. The piano sounds really lovely on it. "Normal People" is a little underwhelming, too. I like the song, but it doesn't do much for me. Joji's vocals sound uninteresting, the beat is a little bland, and Rei Brown's verse is weird. I had never heard of Rei before hearing this song, and I genuinely couldn't tell when his part came in until I looked up the lyrics on Genius so I could write this review. I thought he might've been the one who produced the beat, given how Joji has a habit of giving producers he works with title credits (i.e. "Can't Get Over You" and "Daylight"), but no. He's a guest vocalist and he sounds almost identical to Joji, why is he here? On the topic of uninteresting features: Yves Tumor doesn't really add much to "Reanimator". His vocals are mixed into the beat almost the point of being inaudible. Likewise, Lil Yachty's verse on "Pretty Boy" is fun but doesn't really do much for me. He has good energy, but his vocals aren't the best. I do like the "SUCK MY NUTS" ad-lib in the bridge of this song, though, that's pretty fun.
All in all, that is all the criticisms I have for this album. Everything else about it, I really enjoyed. "Reanimator" is a wonderfully-produced banger with a great beat and some solid vocals/lyricism from Joji, "Tick Tock" is one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard in my life, Omar Apollo's verse on "High Hopes" is very good, the beat for "NITROUS" gives me heavy Jack Stauber vibes (which is a very good thing). "Afterthought" has the best feature on the whole album by far. BENEE's voice kinda sounds like Billie Eilish, but she still absolutely kills it. She complements Joji's energy perfectly, and her verse is well-written. I also really enjoyed "Mr. Hollywood" for what it was. The verses are some of the best sounds Joji has ever produced, the message is appreciated, I love the instrumental a lot, the lyrics are great. This is an awesome song. And the album ends on a pretty good note with "Your Man". It doesn't really feel like a closer, I honestly feel like "Like You Do" would've worked better as the finale song, but "Your Man" is still pretty enjoyable. I love the melody of the verses, the beat is catchy, the fact that this much emotion comes from a repeat of just three lyrics is worth appreciating, and the Daft Punk-esque breakdown in the outro is nice. Nectar doesn't really have a good, flowing song-to-song structure, it kinda feels like the tracklist order was put together at random, but it sticks the landing in a big way.
I really enjoyed Nectar despite its flaws, I think this is his best release to date. This album isn't full of my favorite Joji songs, although a few of them definitely are up there for me, but it has a very good vibe to it. When it works, it really works. There's the occasional speed bump, sure, but it's still a fun ride while it lasts. My favorite tracks are "Run", "Tick Tock", "Mr. Hollywood", "Afterthought", and "Daylight". I really wanted to put "Gimme Love" in that listing because of the second half, but the first half holds it back in a super noticeable way. Worst track without question is "777", that song feels like something that would at most end up on a Deluxe Edition re-release of an album. Despite everything, though, I walked out of Nectar feeling very good. It's a very good album, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Joji's sound develops from here. I'm going to give Nectar an 8/10. Next on the agenda is that new Machine Gun Kelly album. Will Tickets to My Downfall match the same good feelings that Nectar gave me? I dunno, anything's possible. I'll try to have that up soon. Until then, stream "End of the Road"! See you next time.
