The release of Joji’s song “Gimme Love” was a triple threat: a new single from one of 88Rising’s most popular artists, an equally captivating official music video posted on the same day, and an official announcement for the release date of Joji’s long-rumored second album. 

The single is a total cinematic experience, especially if you’ve watched the space-themed music video. The trajectory of the song also easily brings to mind the Interstellar movie and its soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. 

A borderline-frenetic beat at the beginning leads way into a chorus that is either a bit too repetitive or an entrancing chant—your pick—as Joji demands “Gimme gimme love” over and over again. Breathy and smoky vocals pervade the track, and at 1:40 the music syncs with a vulnerable outro to mimic a spaceship’s blastoff. At that particular moment in the music video, we see Joji charging into the ship. For some unknown reason, he’s not supposed to be leaving on that ship but he manages to make it aboard anyways, in quite dramatic glory. Poignant chords at the end signal a departure in more ways than one as the song concludes and Joji leaves Earth far behind. He also leaves listeners wondering what just happened. Even without watching the music video, it’s evident there’s a narrative embedded into the song’s core structure. 

Now the second album finally has a name—Nectar—and fans are speculating about possible connections. Could all Nectar songs and music videos be part of the same universe? After all, another space theme was the basis behind the music video for “Sanctuary,” a single Joji dropped last summer. Is “Gimme Love” a prologue to the narrative in “Sanctuary”? Is Joji translating love and heartbreak into outer space? Amidst the flurry of questions and possible answers, one thing is evident: “Gimme Love” definitely has fans asking Joji to give them more music, ASAP.

“Gimme Love” is also featured on one of KCPR’s carefully curated playlists, Moon. If you’d like to tune to more of Joji and some other similar enterprising artists, feel free to check out Moon below.

Vanya Truong is a Cal Poly English junior and KCPR staff member. Image credit to Joji.