JOJI - Ballads 1

I’ve been missing a long time

to know I had to move

I’ve been waiting my whole life

to know I wanted you

(“Wanted U”, Joji)

Joji, the alias of former YouTuber, Japanese singer and producer George Kusunoki Miller, is a name that stands out especially to web veterans: with four albums under his belt and a decade-long career behind him, during his “excursion into the web” Miller has had quite a few lives, much like a cat, but one in particular devoured him like almost nothing else could, the one belonging to the caustic world of Filthy Frank.

«He is anti-PC, anti-social and anti-couth» still reads the description of his official channel today, abandoned shortly after the release of the anti-best seller “Francis of The Filth” (Lulu, 2017): around the first half of the 2010s, Miller showcased a brand of comedy pushed to the extreme and cunningly blended with the grotesque, social satire, nonsense and sheer absurdity. Though it often veered into countless episodes of terrible taste, over time it came to be recognized not only as one of the forerunners of the “dank meme” (e.g. “Harlem Shake”), but as one of the personalities that left the deepest mark on the YouTube platform, sustaining a long-lived and layered fanbase behind him.

Followers of the channel are well aware of his passion for a certain kind of music. As it happens, his first channel, “DizastaMusic”, was born to promote his self-produced songs. Yet the idea of starting to write more sophisticated tracks surfaced during a glorious period of success on the platform.

Between 2015 and 2017, on his SoundCloud profile, he released several tracks inspired by the musical influences of the time: from the bedroom pop of “Thom”, whose title references the frontman of Radiohead, to the alternative r&b of “You Suck Charlie”, moving on to the fragmented trip-hop of “World$tar Money” and the lo-fi hip hop of “Unsaved Info”, which skilfully makes use of a sample from Erik Satie's “Gymnopédie No. 1”. Shortly before abandoning the YouTube channel for a variety of reasons – mental health, strikes from the platform, a musical shift – Miller signed directly to the American label 88rising, for which he released his first EP under the pseudonym Joji, “In Tongues” (2017). Through all this, it's worth stressing how much the YouTube channel served as a testing ground for an early, ever-evolving stylistic approach, beyond its constant comedic nature – see “Pink Season” (Pink Records, 2017).

Still with 88Rising – with whom Miller would form a lasting bond – came, toward the end of October 2018, the release of his studio debut, “Ballads 1”, preceded by the two singles “Yeah Right” and “Slow Dancing in The Dark”. The record was met with mixed reviews, with some finding the emo-cloud approach unoriginal, and others genuinely praising the variety of its production. Over the years, all the negative aura that once surrounded the concept has blown away through some hypothetical window of prejudice, and listeners have finally given credit where credit is due.

With its unsettling low-resolution cover, the album kicks off in grand style with the alt-r&b track “Attention”, which, despite its radical brevity, reveals on listening Joji's solid production skills, already showcased earlier on the scrapped debut “Chloe Burbank Vol.1” (self-produced, 2016). Bittersweet in its elusiveness, the track drowns pleasantly in a tub of distortion that makes clear its author's conceptual idea: to dismantle an authentic melody, break it into small pieces and then skilfully reassemble it like a puzzle or a restoration job; that's the gist of it.

Produced by Patrick Wimberly, former vocalist and keyboardist of the American synth-pop duo Chairlift, in which a then-unknown Caroline Polachek played, the alt-pop hit “Slow Dancing In The Dark” marries future bass attitudes to floating chillstep rhythms: remorse, competition and resentment are dressed up to the point of turning the track into one of the ex-YouTuber's most memorable songs. Proof of this lies in the song's namesake video, sketched out in bluish photography. What emerges is a convincing ballad for millennials, made of insecurities, disillusionment and shattered hopes. Meanwhile, the trap soul of “Test Drive” settles over a tormented piano and a beat that is very much a product of its time. Marked by Joji's perceptive vocals, close to falsetto, the track flows pleasantly for its average runtime, even if it never veers toward experimental flourishes.

The self-produced alt-r&b of “Wanted U” brings to light one of the Japanese musician's most ambitious and introspective tracks. The track's hushed, at times lethargic choral textures, alternating with a decidedly refined lo-fi taste, make its minimal melodic structures worth noting. Joji's is the story of a man (or a boy grown up far too fast) with a broken heart, an eternal lover of rumination, far from making the kind of decisions that might bring a positive turn to his life. Shortly after comes the album's shortest track, “Can't Get Over You”, a crowd-pleasing funktronica cut produced by Clams Casino.

The hedonistic, solitary “Yeah Right” reflects the influence of Frank Ocean, one of the Japanese producer's chief inspirations. Disorienting is the post-rock of the following “Why Am I Still in LA”, made in collaboration with Los Angeles DJs Shlohmo and D33J. Vaguely punk bursts invade the composition halfway through, propped up by a scratchy bass and ethereal guitars. Produced by London's Jam City and built around decidedly catchier rhythms than usual, the UK bass of “No Fun” is cloaked in a depraved sense of humour, closely tied to the internet persona of Filthy Frank – after all, we're dealing with the same person.

More muted are the scattered experiments toward the end of the record, whether it's the desperate cloud sound of “Come Thru”, the emo rap of “R.I.P.”, made in collaboration with Los Angeles trapper Trippie Redd, or the closing farewell of “I'll See You in 40”, somewhere between indie folk and alt-pop. The nostalgic “XNXX” passes largely unnoticed, its title perhaps conjuring up thoughts of something risqué: instead, what we get is a circular composition, an undefined sketch that stirs up memories of blurred images, distant but no less important for it.

For all its imperfections, “Ballads 1” effectively defines the image of the Internet-made alt-pop star.

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13/05/2026