Djo Trips Over the Cracks of His Own Mind in “Figure You Out”
Photo: Dana Trippe
The latest single off Djo's upcoming album Decide, “Figure You Out” is a dance through the void. The project of Stranger Things star Joe Keery, Djo delivers a poisonous concoction of existential dread and psychedelic vocals, asking of us who are we outside the things we tell ourselves we need and the roles we let ourselves become.
“Is the memory really mine? Is the story I told just fake?,” he sings from just out of frame. While we tend to look outside ourselves for persecution, the most jarring truth of all is that we can be the ones leading our own selves astray. We distort truth through stained glass or a rose-colored lens, living a completely different reality than someone standing right next to us.
Within his DJO identity, you can tangibly feel what a release it is for Keery to live both in disguise yet more loudly than ever before. Within the shadows he shines, unleashing a truth there’s little room for in his Stranger Things stardom. There’s always a silent pressure when an artist dares to tap into a different lane of expression, yet the secret to success seems to be disregarding what’s safe or expected and giving only what is radically honest, which is exactly what Djo has done here. "Figure You Out" is an intimate knowing, like the scent of someone's home on their body.
Grabbing onto the intangible is exhausting, yet Djo has found a way to infuse it with funk. And as “Figure You Out” proves, asking more questions only makes the answers feel more confining, and letting yourself get lost is the only way to figure out there’s truly nothing to find.
Listen to "Figure You Out" below:
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