Justjoey is the artist formerly know as Lucid Optics. He came up in San Jose and had been putting out music under the previous name for years, working along the way with artists like Illogic, Museum, and knowmadic made. A couple of years ago, he got evicted and took a job at a startup in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. After an intense and short period of time in which he lost his job and his girlfriend, Joey made his way back west and settled in Eugene, Oregon. While there were plenty of bad parts of his experience in Wisconsin, Joey did what any good musician does – he poured everything into his art, giving us the intense album, Wisconsin Story.

When he made the choice to change his name from Lucid Optics to Justjoey, there was a conscious effort being made to make his music more personal and heartfelt, which came through on releases like 2020’s Sink or Swim. On Wisconsin Story, everything is just that much more personal. It’s dialed in and focused, taking us through a period of intense change in Joey’s life. He’s once again writing, playing, and recording everything himself, but he’s gotten so good at everything at this point in his career that we’re well past the novelty stage and have just moved into the inventive grooves and slow burning earworms that he’s concocted for this project. If you’ve not spent the time with Justjoey before, he’s got an interesting delivery on the mic, often falling halfway between singing and rapping in this slightly nasal voice that lands somewhere between Yoni Wolf and John Linnell. The key here is that his voice always fits right alongside the melody of the song and always in the pocket of the groove. After a minute or two of adjusting your ear to his style, you stop worrying about trying to define it and just enjoy whatever you want to call it and focus on the words and the emotional content of the songs. In the case of Wisconsin Story, the project easily could have been a mopey or depressing affair, but Joey chose to take some perspective and look at the experience from a few different angles, to focus on the change and the growth, the culture shock of moving halfway across the country, and then he throws in a couple of strange anecdotes for good measure. While there isn’t one particular standout single to the project, everything is so refined and mature in its songwriting, arranging, and performance, with such a strong emotional foundation, it will really sneak up on you and grow on you with each listen. It’s the type of project that is enticing upon first listen, but the next thing you know you’re already back for round five and it’s one of your new favorite recordings.

Wisconsin Story is a short, yet impactful project from Justjoey. He continues to build upon his already strong musical foundation and give you music that is funky and inventive, while also extremely tight in its songwriting and arranging. On top of all this, he opens up and invites you in to relive an unusual and impactful chapter of his life. It’s a project that doesn’t waste a lot of space, and in the process, it will reveal itself quickly as music that you can really form a deep personal bond with.