The Crux Song Sorter

About The Crux

The Crux dropped on April 4, 2025, his third album and the first since End of Beginning took over the world. It's independent too, released through AWAL. Keery wrote the songs over about two years while he was travelling for filming, then took them to New York to finish. He's described the record as a hotel where each guest is at a crossroads, and the album cover has him dangling out of a third-floor hotel window.

He co-produced it with Adam Thein at Electric Lady Studios, Jimi Hendrix's studio in Greenwich Village, working daytime hours with drummer Wesley Toledo. It's a big change from DECIDE - more acoustic guitar and piano, more classic-rock songwriting, and Keery has pointed to McCartney, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Potion he wrote and recorded alone in three days. The Brooklyn Youth Choir sings on Back On You, and his sisters join in, and his old Post Animal bandmates play on Crux. Charlie Heaton, his Stranger Things co-star, is credited as groundskeeper on Charlie's Garden. Good casting.

Basic Being Basic was the first single in January, and he played it on The Tonight Show a few days later. Delete Ya followed in February and Potion came out two days before the album.

It debuted at number 50 on the Billboard 200. Reviews were mixed to good: Rolling Stone gave it 3.5 stars and called it the best music of his career, Pitchfork gave it a 5.9, and Entertainment Weekly put it tenth on its best albums of 2025. It was nominated for Best Album Cover at the 2026 Grammys.

In September he surprise-released the second half, The Crux (Deluxe), and both are in this sort. Together it's 24 songs, about seven minutes. Turn off Deluxe in Filters if you only want the original 12.