Three years of silence broke with a whisper, but “Love You Less“ arrives as a roar cloaked in reverb. Released on 2 January 2026 as the fourth single from his upcoming album Piss In The Wind (dropping 6 February), Joji trades his customary lo-fi melancholy for something altogether more visceral: a shoegaze-drenched meditation on the psychological warfare of unbalanced love.
What we witness here is not simply a stylistic departure but a complete sonic exorcism, one that sees the Japanese-Australian artist finally stepping into the guitar-driven territory his live shows have long hinted at.
Producers Ricky Reed and Nate Mercereau have constructed something genuinely special here: a wall of sound that sits somewhere between Cocteau Twins‘ ethereal haze and the dense, guitar-saturated textures of Slowdive‘s Souvlaki.
The track opens with distorted guitar shimmer, layers of feedback carefully controlled to create atmosphere rather than aggression. This is shoegaze done with restraint, where every reverb tail serves the emotional narrative.
Joji’s vocals float through the mix like smoke, his signature low register taking on new meaning when suspended over such a dense instrumental bed.
Where previous singles like “Glimpse of Us“ relied on piano and space, “Love You Less” buries his voice in texture, making every word feel like it’s fighting through static to reach you.
The effect is claustrophobic in the best possible way: you feel the weight of the song’s emotional baggage pressing down with each verse.
The production choices higlight a deliberate roughness to the mix, guitar tones that grate rather than soothe, drums that punch through at unexpected moments.
Its definitely not background music with how the details co-exist, from the way the bass line mirrors the vocal melody in the pre-chorus, how the guitars drop out almost completely for that captivating hook.
“If I love you less, will you love me more?” The central question of “Love You Less” cuts straight to the bone of toxic attachment theory.
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Joji dissects a relationship where affection becomes currency, where withdrawal triggers pursuit, and presence breeds indifference.
This is the push-pull dynamic many of us recognise but rarely articulate so plainly.
The first verse lays out the asymmetry: “Keep gettin’ less of you / When I give you the best of me / Maybe my love is just too much.”
Here’s someone who has performed the calculations, who understands they’re operating in a system rigged against genuine feeling. The more he invests, the less he receives in return. The cruel mathematics of emotional unavailability.
By the second verse, the pattern sharpens: “Wastin’ my breath / ‘Cause you like it better when there’s none left / When I’m not in your bed / Only time you want me there.”
The song catalogues the signs anyone stuck in this cycle knows intimately: the partner who only calls when you’ve stopped calling them, who finds you fascinating precisely when you’re walking away, who mistakes your absence for value rather than recognising your presence as gift.
What makes the lyrics particularly effective is their refusal to moralise. Joji doesn’t position himself as victim or villain.
He simply observes the mechanics of dysfunction with the weary clarity of someone who knows they should leave but can’t quite manage it. “When I’m ready, you’re not ready” becomes a mantra, a cycle with no exit.
The chorus serves as both question and accusation: “I’m obsessed, you’re not sure / If I love you less, will you love me more? / I pull back, you come forward.”
He’s naming the game whilst still playing it, aware of the manipulation but unable (or unwilling) to step outside the pattern. It’s the sound of someone who has read all the self-help books and still texts back at 3am.
The move to live instrumentation feels significant. Since touring with a full band, Joji has spoken about wanting to capture that raw, guitar-heavy energy on record.
Here, he achieves it without sacrificing the intimacy that made tracks like “Die For You“ emotional. The song works because it marries the stadium-ready dynamics of alternative rock with the confessional vulnerability of bedroom pop.
It’s worth noting the comparisons to Djo’s “End of Beginning” that have circulated online since the song’s release.
Yes, both tracks employ similar chord progressions and share that dreamy, nostalgic quality. But where Djo’s song feels optimistic, a looking-forward-by-looking-back, “Love You Less” sits squarely in the present tense of suffering. It’s not retrospective; it’s happening now, visceral and unresolved.
“Love You Less” is devoid of that moment of clarity where Joji walks away from the toxic dynamic he’s described.
The song simply ends with the question still hanging: will loving less make you love me more? We never get the answer because Joji knows there isn’t one. These patterns don’t resolve; they repeat until someone finds the strength to stop playing.
Sonically, this represents Joji at his most adventurous. The shoegaze influences mirror the lyrical content: both create beautiful things from noise and distortion, finding melody in the midst of chaos.
If Piss In The Wind delivers more of this sonic adventurousness paired with Joji’s gift for emotional precision, we’re looking at what could be his most artistically successful project yet.
For now, “Love You Less” stands as proof that Joji has evolved beyond the lo-fi sad boy archetype that launched his career.
He’s not abandoning vulnerability; he’s amplifying it, turning up the volume until his quiet confessions become sonic cathedrals of feeling. It’s messy, it’s beautiful, and it hurts in all the ways great heartbreak songs should.