Joe Keery Channels Talking Heads on Djo Single ‘Gloom’

Stranger Things favorite Joe Keery is gearing up for the release of his own project: his LP Decide on Sept. 16. On Monday, the musician released the album’s second single, “Gloom,” a funk rock track reminiscent of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.”

“That’s life/That’s death/Your girlfriend scares me/She’s got bad breath,” Keery sings on the track’s hook, before listing all the reasons he’s ready to go: “My eyes are dry as hell, I’m ready to go/My back is giving out, I’m ready to go/I need to walk my dog, I’m ready to go.”

Keery promoted the music release by inviting fans to call a hotline where they’d be played a snippet of his new song as hold music. “Get the enlightenment you need to make decisions you deserve,” read the text in a silly video posted to the singer’s Instagram.

“Gloom” follows the release of his song “Change,” which he released last month leading up to his upcoming album. He also dropped his LP Twenty Twenty in 2019 and wrote and made his new album during the pandemic.

“I have been recording for fun, downloading music, for a really long time,” he told Rolling Stone in 2020. “And it’s something that I always wanted to do. I had a bunch of songs that were done and ready and pretty mixed, and I had a friend, this guy named Adam Thein, and me and him took the songs over the finish line. Pretty fun.”