Glimpse Of Us
by Joji

Album: Smithereens (2022)
Charted: 12 8
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Here, Joji sings about moving on with a new girlfriend after a breakup. He acknowledges she's helped ease his misery, but the singer still misses his former lover. When Joji looks into her eyes, he sees a "glimpse of" his ex. He hopes she feels the same way when she's with her new partner.
  • Joji wrote "Glimpse Of Us" with the brothers Connor and Riley McDonough of the American pop-rock band Before You Exit, along with Joel Castillo and Idarose. Connor and Riley McDonough's other credits include "Someone's Someone" by Monsta X and "Save Room For Us" by Tinashe.

    Connor McDonough also produced the track.
  • Joji released "Glimpse of Us" on June 10, 2022 as his first musical offering since his second studio album, Nectar.
  • "Glimpse of Us" became Joji's first Top 10 single on the Hot 100 thanks in large part to its popularity on TikTok. Creators used the song as a soundtrack to boyfriend/girlfriend-themed videos.
  • Dan Streit (Charli XCX's "Forever," Major Lazer's "Jump") directed the video. Shot on a Sony DCR-HC32 miniDV across multiple states and edited from approximately 15 hours of footage, it shows images of race cars, horses, police harassment, derelict living, and much more. "Joji had an idea for making a video that would be hand-held, shaky, where you're following a group of kids and there's lots of fast cutting and destruction," explained the director to Billboard. "He listed off some ideas, like maybe there'd be drifting and things on fire, it was pretty loose. We could do whatever we wanted as long as it fit that framework."

    Streit wanted all the images to feel totally real, not just a compilation of crazy scenes. "The emotion of the song and its lyrics deserved more of a narrative than just chaos and destruction set to the song," he said. "So I found a good, cheap camera that we could get a bunch of to send around to cool subjects. And so certain ones worked and others didn't, but the ideas evolved as we went along."
  • "Glimpse Of Us" topped the singles chart in several countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines and Singapore. When it reached #1 in Australia, Joji became the second Japanese artist to have a chart-topping single there, following Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" in 1963.
  • Joji recorded this haunting ballad for Smithereens. The song opens the album, introducing its narrative of the singer wishing to reconcile with a past love.

Comments: 1

  • Cas from San Franciscofrom a dublin talk jogi did not write it 3 people wrote it for him
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)

Chad Channing (Nirvana, Before Cars)Songwriter Interviews

Chad tells tales from his time as drummer for Nirvana, and talks about his group Before Cars.

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song Titles

Spot The Real Red Hot Chili Peppers Song TitlesMusic Quiz

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have some rather unusual song titles - see if you can spot the real ones.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

Which Songs are About Drugs?

Which Songs are About Drugs?Fact or Fiction

"25 or 6 to 4" to "Semi-Charmed Life" - see if you can spot the songs that are really about drugs.

Janis Ian: Married in London, but not in New York

Janis Ian: Married in London, but not in New YorkSong Writing

Can you be married in one country but not another? Only if you're part of a gay couple. One of the first famous singers to come out as a lesbian, Janis wrote a song about it.

Sam Hollander

Sam HollanderSongwriter Interviews

The hitmaking songwriter/producer Sam Hollander with stories about songs for Weezer, Panic! At The Disco, Train, Pentatonix, and Fitz And The Tantrums.