Best of Ontario: Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz — Jooj Two

Sook-Yin Lee & Adam Litovitz — Jooj Two

Ontario: Top 10 of 2021

by Daniel McIntosh

Published on December 5, 2021

In describing Jooj’s self-titled album, released in 2015, Sook-Yin Lee said her “hope was to bring people to a curious and discomforting place, but with a sense of guidance and comfort.” Jooj Two, released after collaborator Adam Litovitz’s death, seems to continue that mission. The album pairs electronic elements with Lee’s dreamy vocals. The album closes with a eulogy named after her late partner, hopefully, returning the feeling of comfort.

Bo Burnham’s transcendent comedy special isn’t the only great piece of COVID-adjacent art titled Inside released this year. The indie-rock quintet’s latest opens and closes with the sounds of the 7pm clanging pots and pans that once heralded the essential workers, and many of the tracks find them grappling with introspective thoughts while trapped in a room – being stuck inside one’s own head being an even worse fate than the physical boundaries.