After being delayed through the summer, singer-songwriter Joji’s second studio album “Nectar” is finally upon us. To be clear, I’ve never been a big Joji fan. I think he has some phenomenal tracks here and there, but much of his material up to this point has felt very rough. However, I’ve always recognized his potential in the field of moody indie pop. But this album defied all of my expectations. Because it’s garbage.

“Nectar” is perhaps the worst album I’ve heard all year. It’s generic, lazy, boring and, occasionally, seriously grating. In fact, I vehemently refuse to listen to it more than my initial time to write this review (one that was supposed to be for pleasure). It simply doesn’t deserve it.

Strangely, “Nectar’s” instrumentals are at worst merely fine, and at best legitimately pretty good. The problem lies almost exclusively in Joji’s (and his features’) performance, lyricism and melody-writing. The entire album is composed of terrible melodies delivered terribly.

This isn’t to say it doesn’t have great moments  — specifically, the second half of “Gimme Love” is absolutely beautiful, perhaps the pinnacle of his career. I really didn’t like “Run” when it was released, calling it an Imagine Dragons rip-off, but having seen the rest of the album, I’ve come around to it. “Sanctuary” is also a great track. One of the brighter, cleaner pop tracks on the album, it’s super catchy and well-produced. That’s, uh… actually it, on second thought. This album is 18 tracks, by the way.

“Nectar” is filled to the brim with soulless lyrics and hooks. Take, for example, this line from “Tick Tock,” one of the worst songs I’ve maybe ever heard:

Tick-tock

Gimme, gimme big bucks

That is all I do, girl

I just hit the jackpot

This sounds like Kidz Bop Jay-Z. Alternatively, who could forget “Gimme Love,” whose chorus is poetry so fine it’s surely leaving Angelou and Frost shaking in their boots:

Gimme, gimme love, gimme, gimme love

Gimme, gimme love, gimme, gimme love

When I’m gone, when I’m gone (Oh)

Gimme, gimme love, gimme, gimme love

Gimme, gimme love, gimme, gimme love (Oh)

When I’m gone, when I’m gone

You know what? If Joji didn’t care while writing this trash, then I don’t care either. I’m confident I’ve spent as much time writing these 497 words as he did writing all of the melodies on the album combined. I’m baffled at how he managed to be in such an unpolished spot on his debut album and then regress. It’s like he had it in his head that the more disinteresting and simple his sound was, the better of an artist he’d appear.

If you’re going to stream something from Sept. 25, 2020, listen to the new Sufjan Stevens album. I may or may not review that in the coming days, but I can tell you with certainty that you won’t be begging to return to the time before you heard it. Don’t waste your time with “Nectar.”