Heyo! I know I haven't posted since April. You can thank my mental health and a lack of Wi-Fi. ALSO, I haven't written a Kinda Review since February 2019 and it's October 2023 so this is going to be interesting and different.
Disclaimer that I am NOT a music critic or a critic of any king. I am just someone who listens to music regularly. These posts are mostly ramblings about albums I enjoy. If there are music videos, I'll try to include them in the post. Every song will be linked in the title.
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| Fastlife album cover and tracklist |
Today's subject is Fastlife, the debut album of Joe Jonas. The album was released on October 11, 2011. I am writing about it 12 years later because I believe in justice for Fastlife. I specifically wanted to post this around the anniversary and it just so happens that the 12th anniversary is a Wednesday so TODAY is the 12th anniversary. Happy birthday, Fastlife!
If you know me, you know that Joe Jonas is very important to me for so many reasons. I'll save the Joe ramblings for the inevitable Fangirl Friday post I'll write about him. He is the first celebrity I ever fixated on. My first parasocial love. The very reason I became a fangirl. Also, the reason I got into writing fanfiction. If that never happened, I would have never started this blog, so everyone say, thank you, Joseph.
By the time the album had originally come out, I was towards the end of my original Joe Jonas fixation. I probably only listened to it ONCE after it came out. However, I have recently reignited my Jonas Brothers fixation - to be fair it never died fully because I continued to follow their careers this whole time - and I revisited it and I have fallen in love with it. I know the album didn't originally perform well, but that doesn't change that I personally, love it. I will admit that some songs are not as good as they could have been, but I say that with all the love I have in my heart for Joe. He is behind some of my favorite songs of the past seventeen years. DNCE and Jonas Brothers are two of my most listened to artists of all time according to Spotify.
But anyway, let's get into the album!
Coincidentally, this is the first song on the album and the reason I decided to give the album another listen over a decade after my initial listen. But before I get into it I gotta tell you how it brought me back to the date I saw the photos of Joe after he took off his purity ring and how I cried my eyes out because I was an emotional teenager who was convinced I was going to marry him and I was still wearing my purity ring like the good Christian girl I was trying to be. The song is tied to a weird era when I decided I was no longer a Joe girl and temporarily became a Kevin girl - but I'll save that for another post. This is a great song to vibe to when I'm zoning out. It's a bop and a great opener for the album. "If you need someone by your side with the love inside / Night or day, I'll be there, you know I will..." lives rent free in my head. I love his voice in this song.
There are two versions of this song on the album. The first is the original version with just Joe. The other, which is the final track of the album, is a version featuring the GOAT, Lil Wayne. I didn't want to write about the song twice so I'll write about both here. The original version of the song has an accompanying music video which is my favorite of the three music videos released with the album. I watched it for the first time when I began writing this post and it is a music video that will live rent free in my head for the rest of my life. The version with Lil Wayne is easily my favorite song on the album. Probably was my most played solo Joe song even before the 2023 fixation resurgence. It's the first song off the album that I learned all the words to. However, my love for this song came YEARS after the album was released. Must have been 2015 when I redicsovered it - around the time I started calling myself a Joe girl again. It's catchy and upbeat. A song I play when I need to drag myself out of bed. Also breathes life into my delusional nine-year-old self who pretended to be the girl Joe wrote songs for. This song also scratches my brain - if you know you know. Of course Lil Wayne's verse is incredible. The power "Man, we go together like money and power" has! Does Lil Wayne have a bad song? Doubtful. This song is the reason for the Parental Advisory label on the album, which I find hilarious because it's the only song with any expletives.
This song was co-written by Joe and Chris Brown (and Brian Kennedy who I'm honestly not familiar with). You didn't even have to tell me Chris Brown had a hand in this song because it has him written all over it. It's not the only song written and produced by Chris Brown on the album, but I do think it's the better of the two. I know for a fact I would have absolutely loved this song in elementary school because my music taste was SO different back then. Joe's vocals are great. It's a song about a break-up. I am obsessed with the fact that someone on Genius pointed out the lyric "It was Saturday when I got that call" sounds like karma because supposedly Joe broke up with Taylor Swift over the phone.
This song is the definition of a bop. This is a song that can pull you out of a bad mood. Joe didn't write this one, but that doesn't deter from the fact that I absolutely love it. The power "Most likely I'll be on my worst behavior" holds over me. Definitely is one of my most played songs on the album. Not my favorite, but it is ranked high. Even now as I am listening to the song to write about it, I am dancing. I love this song so much which is saying a lot because I don't even like electropop like that. BUT THIS SONG! It's so good for no reason. He popped off with this one.
For some reason, I had a hard time writing about this song UNTIL I sat down and read the lyrics along with the song. I know the words to every song on this album, but I don't register them in my brain until I actually read them. Nothing could have prepared me for "When I'm in the streets, I'm speedin' / In the sheets, no reason". This album was post-Disney and after purity ring came off and he wanted people to KNOW! This is the title track of the album. I absolutely love Joe's vocals in this song. Surface level the song is about driving fast, but when you look deeper you see it is NOT just about driving fast. We love good metaphors and euphemisms. If I was writing this post five years ago, I'd be analyzing every lyric and metaphor, but that's boring and would take way too much time.
This song is about sex. No metaphors. No euphemisms. Man is straight up singing, "I wanna rock with you til sunrise, can I? / Let me do all the things you like". And again, this album was after the Disney era. This song to me holds the same defiance and POWER that Miley Cyrus' song, "Can't Be Tamed" had after she also left Disney. I would be lying if I said this song didn't absolutely blow my mind, the first time I processed the lyrics. Honestly, the horniness of this song makes my brain short-circuit. So thanks for that, Joseph. I struggled trying to figure out how to "be normal" about this song for my blog, but honestly, if you know me, you know being normal about ANYTHING is impossible. So how can I be normal about the man who was my sexual awakening straight up being horny on the main? Also apparently this song was supposed to be a tribute to Michael Jackson. I mean this with all the love and respect I have for Joe, but I think it was a miss on that aspect. But I still think it's a good song.
I jokingly did a poll on Tumblr for people to vote who did "Sorry" better because in case you didn't know, the Jonas Brothers also have a song titled "Sorry" - a completely different song. I honestly was expecting the Jonas Brothers' song to win the poll, because I expect more people to be familiar with that one than Joe's. But Joe's version actually won AS IT SHOULD! The more I listen to this song, the more I fall in love with it. I absolutely love the guitar on it. I will admit, I think it's a bit over-produced, but that is just my opinion. The whole vibe of this album isn't music I usually listen to. It's a post break-up apology song. Speaking about the song, Joe said, "'Sorry' is probably the most personal song on the record for me...I broke someone's heart. I felt horrible about the situation. Someone you may or may not know. This person I had a really close relationship and close friendship and, yea, so this was my, my apology song to them." I don't think he's ever specified who he wrote the song for, but it's a great song and I would forgive him.
Similarly to "Love Slayer" it is the definition of a BOP. This is a song that CONSTANTLY gets suck in my head. It's just so damn catchy. He did not write this one, but he still popped off. Is it accurate to call this one a banger? Looking at the lyrics for this song made me realize I've been singing it wrong this WHOLE time. I really thought it was "her kiss is like a rope and chain" but Genius - my trusty sidekick for these posts - says it's "her kiss is like her open chain". The song is about falling in love with a woman who, in his words will "steal your heart and co". I think it's a fun song and according to comments he's made about it, he agrees.
Another song I love on the album. It's a song about trying to get through hardship in a relationship. To quote Joe, himself, "...it's pretty much saying, 'Hey, I love you and there's no reason to argue, like let's focus on the positive and the happy things that are going on in the relationship.' It's about trying to salvage a relationship while there's still time. "We've come too far to give up / Can't go on 'cause you know I love you still / Baby, we can't give up now / No stranger to pain, I know how it feels" to me sounds like someone pleading with their partner not to give up just because things get hard.
This is another bop in the same vein of "Love Slayer" and "Kleptomaniac". Pulls you out of a bad mood. Gets your body moving. It was one of the first songs produced for the album. Reading about how Joe talks about the song makes me wish we could have gotten a music video because he said, "we got together in the studio and we just could put this idea almost as if it was a bank robbery and saying, 'Okay, love, like take it and run. No one can stop us.'" Give me bank robber partner in crime Joe Jonas. Please.
I love this man and his music with my WHOLE heart. I have so much love in my heart for this whole album, but I am sorry to say this song ain't it. I am so sorry, Joseph. It is my least favorite song on the album. I just don't vibe with is. Joe didn't write this one. It was co-written by Chris Brown, Chauncy Hollis Jr., and Kevin McCall. Co-produced by Chris Brown and Hit-Boy. It's definitely a song written for Chris Brown's voice. I don't personally like Chris Brown, but I will not deny the man's talent. If he had sung the song, maybe my feelings would be different. But in 2011 Joe Jonas didn't have the vocals for this song. Don't get me wrong, the vocals are fine. You will never hear me ever say anything negative about Joe's voice. But he didn't have the right voice for this song AT THE TIME! If Joe ever wanted to re-record this song NOW, I might love it. There are only TWO songs that Joe Jonas sings on that I'll skip every time it comes on and this is one of them. Again, I'm sorry, Joseph. I still love you and your music so much.
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| I don't even know if this is a legit alternate album cover |
If by some miracle Joe Jonas ever sees this post: hi, Joe. Hope you're doing well. I hope to meet you one day and let you know how much you mean to me and how you have helped me get through the past seventeen years of my life. Thank you for making music. Please never stop. Also, tell your brothers I said hello. Oh, and when are you going to drop another solo album? I think another one is severely overdue. Don't you?
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