Here’s something fun: We’re going to Stockholm, Sweden in late August. It’ll be Jack’s first transatlantic flight, and my first transatlantic flight with a person who wears light-up Super Mario sneakers.

Funnily enough, my first flight ever was across the Atlantic when my family moved to England for a couple years. We had business flight seats back when that was a thing and got our own DVD players like in the first Mission Impossible movie and I slept on the floor. It’s still the best flight I’ve ever taken.

Jack is much more well-traveled than Reagan and I ever were at his age. This is a necessity because we live far from family, but also a wonderful learning experience that teaches us all about patience, humanity, and the superiority of Airport McDonalds vs Airport Wendys. He will also be flying across the country in July to partake in an Alaskan cruise, and watching him grow up on airplanes is a really wonderful way to see just how much he matures in such small amounts of time. At this point, I’m fairly certain if we put him in the cockpit he’d just, you know, figure it out.

Anyways, if you’ve been to Sweden, or have any international toddler travel tips, just reply to this email. Onto the tunes.

Djo - “Change” (2022)

Djo is the musical alter ego of actor Joe Keery, who made a name for himself on Stranger Things (which will release its final season sometime before the Sun burns itself out). His most famous song, “End of Beginning,” took over TikTok for a while, and when that sort of thing happens to someone who’s known first as an actor, people immediately start tripping over themselves to call it a One-Hit Wonder.

But as you can no doubt surmise from the giant headline about these paragraphs, we’re not talking about “End of Beginning,” which was truly just the beginning. The band’s song “Change,” also from 2022’s Decide, is a funky, scuzzy, catchy-as-heck late album track that touches on topics of loneliness, personal growth, and what it means when you have no choice but to change.

Keery sings in an 80s pop-imitating falsetto, “I thought that change was bad / But you have changed my mind / And you put my heart at ease.” It’s earnest, sure, but also like a really clear-eyed view of what his life must have felt like as he hit it big on one of the world’s largest television shows.

I’m not sure why we get so hung-up when actors want to be musicians (perhaps we should blame Kevin Bacon), but is it really so weird that an artist is interested in other types of art? I understand that it’s human nature to compartmentalize stuff, but it’s not like us “normies” are only allowed one hobby. So good for Joe Keery, this music is super chill and catchy and surprisingly focused for a person who is probably EXTREMELY busy.

The band’s new album, The Crux, comes out in late April and the two songs released so far are extremely good (especially “Delete Ya”). His retro, slightly noir, fun-as-heck guitar pop is going to soundtrack a lot of summers this year - despite its purple-ish hues.

Here’s a (too-late plea): If you’ve never actually listened to one of the songs I’ve recommended in this dang newsletter, maybe it’s time to change that. Nailed it.

See you next week.

BLAKE