On the opening track of STARS, Joey Meland offers something of a mission statement for their project Cocojoey: “Too many more directions to go and I just don’t know how to pick a path.” They sing these lines gently at first, over a placid keyboard fantasia, but over the course of the track’s three-minute runtime, the delicate melodies build into black metal screams. The synths contort into acid-damaged drum’n’bass, then tilt-a-whirl prog-rock and feverish showtunes that feel like they’re ripped from All That Jazz’s deranged death dreams. It’s unrelentingly paced and overstuffed with ideas; with each successive track, it feels like Meland is trying to push the gas pedal even further through the floor.
Meland has always approached music with this twitchy restlessness. They learned to play the piano at age four, then darted deliriously between genres, recording classical compositions, black metal, and noise before graduating from high school. They earned a degree in composition and spent a decade playing in bands around Chicago, shifting between jazz, folk music, and funk—trying a bit of everything without committing to anything in particular. Then, during COVID lockdown, they took a pause from their busy schedule and experienced what they describe as a “spiritual transformation.” It led to a new clarity of purpose and the birth of Cocojoey—an exuberant, genre-smashing solo project that looks back at the disparate threads of their past and asks: What if instead of spreading themselves thin across all these projects, they did it all at the same time?
On their previous full-length, Cocojoey’s World, Meland emerged with an oozy, embryonic version of the sound: gnarled riffs clawing their way out of video game synths like chestbursters on the Nostromo. For all its scattershot psychedelia, STARS—Cocojoey’s first album for the similarly genre-obliterating label Hausu Mountain—feels more practiced and purposeful. The frayed fibers of Meland’s interests are never more delicately woven together than on “COCOJOEY’S LACK OF REGRETS,” on which they dart between queasy sound design, fusion-y piano runs, dead-eyed rapping, and guttural death metal affectations. The track also features some twisted guitar work from recurring collaborator Fire-Toolz, whose presence may help overwhelmed listeners understand just what kind of jittery, otherworldly sounds Meland is employing. Like Fire-Toolz’s vibrantly overstimulating records, STARS toys with both devastating heaviness and cerebral prog nerdiness in a way that feels both considered and playful. Both collaborators build the component parts of their tracks like intricate Lego sculptures, then smash them together and giggle at the wreckage.
Lighthearted as the approach may feel, Meland also uses the tracks to tackle some weighty concerns. “TIME TO GO!” is burdened by intrusive thoughts, self-obsession, and the fight to make meaning in life through making art. Between the dizzying riffs, “COCOJOEY’S LACK OF REGRETS” offers meditations on life with chronic illness, calling out a health insurance company by name. “ANOTHER LIFE” uses kaleidoscopic synth programming to counterbalance a clear-eyed meditation about depression and rotting in bed. It’s heavy stuff when you read the lyric sheet, but that gravity is almost entirely obscured by the unrestrained joy with which Meland approaches these hyperactive compositions. In this way, STARS posits one path to make your way through life’s challenges: Stay busy enough and you’ll barely notice the darkness.
