"BALLADS 1" - Joji

A heartbreaking, depressing and lo-fi mixed masterpiece

BALLADS 1 by joji is a beautiful piece of art with songs that make you feel a certain way that no other album has been able to capture for me. Each song is so wonderously mixed, produced and performed with the lo-fi atmosphere being perfect for this mood that is promintent in the album. The LP is moody, sad but it's still able to make you bop your head to the hard beats and catchy vocals. I might be biased to the album because I listened to the album through the worst part of my life but I truly believe that objectively speaking, this album is amazing.

The first track of the album is the song "ATTENTION" a beautiful piano song with this looping, distorted piano. it starts off chill and then this huge bass enters that distorts the track but it isn't grating to the ears. the song is muffled in a way that makes it sound like it's coming from the inside of a house while you're outside. The song after that is the song "SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK" which is the song that went viral and deservedly so. the song is so good with the powerful chorus with joji screaming "in the dark" with so much passion that it feels like being devistated. The song "YEAH RIGHT" is one of my all time favorites. The piano in this song is so pretty and I feel like it's the saddest song on the album. The song "NO FUN" is about having friendships you're just ruining by keeping to yourself and sort of pushing them away because they're "no fun". The song is really great and I really like the pitched up vocals used as a back up vocal. The song R.I.P (Feat. Trippie Redd) is a really powerful song made even better with a REALLY great performance by Trippie Redd. The part where he sings "I would die for you" is just really well sang and at the second chorus, the raspiness of his voice as he harmonizes is just SOOO GOOD! We then have the last song on the album. "SEE YOU IN 40" starts off as this slow ukulele song but then switches into this bumping banger with this really other wordly sounding guitar and hard bass. It then switches back to the slow ukulele song to end off the album on this really touching and heartbreaking note as joji sings with really distored vocals where you can't even understand what he's saying, it just sounds like he's crying as he sings.

The only real gripe I have for this LP is with the song "WHY AM I STILL IN LA". the song starts off kind of boring and slow but as it goes on it get's more and more powerful and then it hits this point with this distorted guitar and it starts going crazy and it's one of my favorite parts of the album and it sounds like it's about to reach some point where it's about to hit some sort of climax but it just goes right back to how it started. the buildup didn't really have a climax but rather just went right back down which is a bit of a let down but It also kind of fits the theme of the album and could be viewed as a showcase of disappointment which I'd like to believe is the case but it still is, a bit disappointing.

in conclusion. This album is the best sad and depressing project I've ever heard and it's astronomically better mixed, produced, performed and written than the last sad and depressing album I reviewed (Crybaby by lil peep). With all that being said, I do have an emotional connection to this album which might make my score a little biased but I feel like even objectively speaking, this album is an amazing showcase of joji's talents and it's an amazing well made project so I'm giving BALLADS 1 by joji a

9/10

Favorites: ATTENTION, SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK, TEST DRIVE, WANTED U, CAN'T GET OVER YOU, YEAH RIGHT, NO FUN, COME THRU, R.I.P, XNXX, I'LL SEE YOU IN 40

Only one with a problem but still a song I love: WHY AM I STILL IN LA

(This review was written on August 20th, 2022)