Remi Wolf perfectly exhibits controlled chaos in her new debut album “Juno.” You are forced to step into her psychedelic world where every song is sung with the utmost energy and mismatched patterns are the norm. All of her visuals are collage-like and overflowing with stimulation as she seamlessly shifts from singing about having “boobies on my booty” to being defensive about the most benign things amongst endless harmonies.
On Oct. 15 Wolf released “Juno” after garnering attention with her EPs “You’re a Dog!” and “I’m Allergic to Dogs!” Her most well known song “Photo ID,” a groovy, high energy dance anthem, became popular on TikTok and amassed over 200,000 videos, which led her to create a new version with a feature from Dominic Fike.
“Photo ID” foreshadowed “Juno,” which serves as an honest, unapologetic and introspective diary for Wolf to express feelings of loneliness, fear and anger. While this album’s lyrics point to heavy emotions, each track almost never ceases to slow down as they are filled to the brim with chanted choruses and soulful guitar riffs.
“Liquor Store,” the lead single and most streamed song from the album, is one of the stand out songs from the LP. The song explores Wolf’s fear of abandonment paralleled with her relationship with alcohol — which she recently went to rehab for — amidst a fiery electric guitar.
Wolf perfectly mixes contemplative lyrics among humorous ones as she sings “I’m a thrift store baddie with my booty on the sink / I’m a shitty ex-nanny with my marbles on the brink” and “We got short legs, long legs, everybody big legs / Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? / You, motherfucker, you, you, motherfucker,” the latter being purely for fun according to the Genius lyrics page for this song.
The sharp and intense guitar helps to convey Wolf’s tenseness and emotional instability, along with her singing that eventually turns into a drawn out cry, expressing her sense of longing. Wolf’s emotional state is easily communicated, yet it does not drag the song down or leave you feeling sad afterwards.
Similarly, “Grumpy Old Man” is anchored by a groovy and smooth bassline accented by a tambourine that creates a perfect ambiance to make you want to get up and dance. Wolf describes a grumpy old man, as the song title suggests, by singing “I got long hair, long beard, turtleneck sweater / Got that long hair, long beard, turtleneck sweater” while also talking about her defensiveness: “I’m so defensive I’ve got eggshells around me.” The opposition between these two themes adds an element of fun while also allowing Wolf to stand out from her other introspective songs.
By contrast, songs like “Street You Live On” and “Buttermilk” add more depth to the album with melancholy. “Buttermilk” has percussive guitars and a light and airy chorus that soars among speedy and syncopated verses. It describes the instability that Wolf experienced within a relationship as she was constantly shifting between peace and being thrown “into the lava,” adding variation into the piece of work as a whole.
This trend continues with “Street You Live On,” the song that most clearly mirrors a ballad. She oscillates between obsession and a need to distance herself, singing “I’m a fеral cat I’m licking up the milk at your door” and “I avoid the street that you live on / You’re a magnet pulling my feet and my head off.” Wolf’s distortion in her voice adds color to the sparse production relative to the rest of the album.
Only Wolf can create sonically uplifting songs that hit upon heavy themes without dragging the album down. Her witty and humorous lyrics along with her sharp and gritty voice captivate the listener throughout the album.
Ava Hinz SC ’25 is TSL’s music columnist, and she’s from Los Altos, California. When she is not nerding out about music podcasts, she is most likely finding a coffee shop to try their iced chai or talking about the time she met Jojo Siwa.