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Everyone’s favourite Steve renumerates End of Beginning Saga with thirD as he goes full mcCartney.

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It may be a surprise to many that Joe Keery best known from blockbusters Stranger Things and Fargo, also has been having an esteemed profile as a multi-faceted artist on the side. To those more in the know, under the moniker of Djo, he has been lighting up rooms with his indoctrinated indie whimsies since 2019 – with his biggest actually being End of Beginning that was seemingly on every social media pop-up and Summer site ad floozy last year.

Now, riding on those same hot coattails, comes his next saga in breaking the Internet with his third studio record, The Crux.

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A staple of pure ’60s and ’70s pop with those angelic guitar arrangements and bedroom synth warbles, The Crux battles with loss and gratitude behind a Beatles backdrop. It’s rich energy starts with its immediate trendsetters, as Basic Being Basic and Delete Ya will soon become hot Indie Summer staples, certainly when he hits up Glastonbury and Coachella. For all its wonderful acoustic arrangements, the likes of Fly is something right out of a McCartney playbook for Rubber Soul, while the falsetto-sung psychedelics of Potion lends a hand to Joe’s ability to not just cast from the same line.

Lonesome Is A State of Mind meanwhile, plays into a more classic rock arrangement, working with cutting synths and bombastic drums – almost ELO-esque in design. This trend continues with Link – an operatic rock cult-classic something right of Mercury’s playbook this time. While the record seeps with nostalgic undertones of those rock Gods before him, the airy energy still keeps itself on a knife edge of something fresh and exciting from the powerhouse heartthrob.

At the heart of its themes is a picture of reflection and a warming sense of community in music. Although the songs are rich with specificity, the album plays like a movie soundtrack, where the listener can easily align with a character, situation, or emotion. And this is, in part, how Keery frames the album’s concept through its art – a collaboration with Neil Krug – as a hotel where all of its guests are transient, and at a spiritual or emotional crossroads.

Set for a spellbinding Summer (not to mention the next Stranger Things series allegedly dropping in Autumn this year) Djo’s The Crux is a soft-pop golden mile of nostalgic tenderness and feel-good electronic rock that just sounds like he’s having a right old blast.

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A man with many talents, The Crux is just another project outdoing himself with all those burrowing poppy earworms. It’s just so much fun and is the perfect soundtrack for welcoming all this Sun. Get it.

There’s a crux to everything, Not everybody’s contemplating it / Only you satisfied, I wonder who is on the island with me?

Joe Keery (Djo) returns to the UK this Summer with dates in Glasgow, Manchester and a three-date residency at O2 Kentish Town Forum in London on the 5th to the 7th of June before heading off to Worthy Farm at the end of the same month.