Djo: Decide [AWAL]

Why you'll love it

Decide swaps the psychedelic rock of Djo's debut for synth-pop, synthwave and new wave. "End of Beginning" went viral in 2024 and took the album onto the charts in Canada, the US and across Europe.

This edition

• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Most actors with a hit Netflix show keep the music under their own name. Joe Keery, Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, did the opposite, calling himself Djo (and at first wearing a wig) so the songs could stand on their own. They did.

He and his old Post Animal bandmate Adam Thein wrote and produced the whole thing, starting in 2019, carrying on over screen-shared Ableton sessions through lockdown and finishing at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles. David Byrne was a big influence, along with Daft Punk, Justice and the Strokes. "Runner" opens in falsetto (Billboard said it would fit on Tame Impala's Currents), "Gloom" nods to Devo and Talking Heads, "Half Life" has a Blade Runner glow, and "End of Beginning" is a nostalgic power ballad about a past life in Chicago.

Keery called the album an aural history of his late twenties. Two years after it came out, the internet found "End of Beginning" and sang it back to him, which is a bit like a letter arriving at exactly the right address, two years late.

Also at Kops: more Djo on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On AWAL (cat# DJOLP01), a reissue of the 2022 album.