Joe Keery is in his Bruce Springsteen era. No, really. When we caught up with him backstage at Laneway Festival, he was fresh off a long-haul flight, eating a Fisherman’s Friend, and raving about Blood Brothers — the 1995 Springsteen doco he’d just watched on the plane over. “I’m feeling it,” he said with a grin.

And you can hear that influence in his music. Dancing in the Dark, I’m on Fire — those swelling, earnest ballads with teeth. Keery’s own End of Beginning closed out his Laneway set in similar fashion, all bittersweet nostalgia and slow-burning release. It’s also the viral sleeper hit that was sneaking into everyone’s TikTok algorithm and Spotify Wrapped picks last year.

But now, Keery’s gearing up to release The Crux, his third studio album as Djo, dropping next week. If DECIDE was Djo’s psychedelic coming-of-age, then The Crux is the grown-up sequel. Here's everything we know about the release, and what to expect.

When will it drop?

The Crux will be released on 4 April  2025, via AWAL Recordings.

Where can I stream or buy it?

You’ll be able to stream it on all major platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, or purchase it digitally and on vinyl through Djo’s official site.

What will it sound like?

It’s a major leap from his earlier projects — not because he’s reinventing the wheel, but because, for the first time, he recorded the whole thing in a real studio (Electric Lady Studios in New York, no less). “Before, it was all bedroom recordings,” he told RUSSH back in February. “This time the fidelity’s different, the sonics are more pure."
Keery tells us that, sonically, it’s a love letter to the artists who shaped him. “The Cars, Carole King, Bruce... people who were just writing great songs,” he said. That reverence shows in the details: analog warmth, synths that hum like neon, a deliberate focus on craft over trend.
We’ve already had a taste with lead single Basic Being Basic — a wry, groovy jab at social posturing that Keery calls “a shot fired to anyone who's trying to be of the moment.”

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What else is Keery up to this year?

He’s currently on the Back On You World Tour, which kicked off at Laneway and will take him everywhere from Coachella to the UK.