National Emergency: JoJo Is Back

By Jia Tolentino | August 20, 2015 | 7:10pm

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I mean, she’s been back, though, which all true JoJo enthusiasts already know anyway: even before she got out of her dead-end label situation via a woefully extended legal battle, she was all dropping mixtapes and Drake covers, and a month after she was #FreeJo, she dropped a little Valentine’s Day Soundcloud mixtape (#LoveJo) featuring one of the best Phil Collins covers to ever grace this green-ass earth, and a month after that I saw her at SXSW and died.

I came back to life mere minutes ago, only because JoJo has now dropped a “tringle,” which we cannot embed here successfully but you can hear on her website nonetheless: there’s “Say Love,” a shivery ballad full of sprinting-through-a-thunderstorm bombast; “Save My Soul,” mournful and electric; and “When Love Hurts,” which filters JoJo’s smoothly dramatic pop&B vibes through a wee bit of autotune and takes her—the verse snapping into a thumping four-on-the floor—to the club.