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

Country Song Titles

Country Song TitlesFact or Fiction

Country songs with titles so bizarre they can't possibly be real... or can they?

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: Tarantino EditionMusic Quiz

Whether he's splitting ears or burning Nazis, Quentin Tarantino uses memorable music in his films. See if you can match the song to the scene.

Gilby Clarke

Gilby ClarkeSongwriter Interviews

The Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist in the early '90s, Gilby talks about the band's implosion and the side projects it spawned.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.

Michael Franti

Michael FrantiSongwriter Interviews

Franti tells the story behind his hit "Say Hey (I Love You)" and explains why yoga is an integral part of his lifestyle and his Soulshine tour.

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"

Jules Shear - "All Through The Night"They're Playing My Song

Shears does very little promotion, which has kept him secluded from the spotlight. What changed when Cyndi Lauper had a hit with his song? Not much, really.