Joe Jonas's 'Music for People Who Believe in Love' is a Dreamy Rock Rumination on Romance and Rediscovery: Album Review
- Abby Anderson
- May 24
- 3 min read
Updated: May 24
Stand-out tracks: "Parachute" "Velvet Sunshine (with Franklin Jonas)" "My Own Best Friend"
Our favorites: "Only Love" "Honey Blonde" "Constellation"
Release date: May 23, 2025
Label: Republic Records
For fans of: Niall Horan, Jonas Brothers, FINNEAS
Rediscovering his voice as a solo artist 14 years after his last solo project, Joe Jonas's latest endeavor, Music for People Who Believe in Love, is shrouded in blossoming gratitude, blistering reflection, and an open-hearted desire. Dabbling in genre twists and lyrical matter that feel too personal to bestow upon a Jonas Brothers album, Music for People Who Believe in Love is a rarity, a timeless pop-rock time capsule, and a fantastically executed whimsical introspection on what life can be when you open yourself up to the impossibility of finding love.
The album moves through emotional ebbs and flows, seeming to chronologically illustrate Jonas's evolution through falling in and out of love. Following an instrumental intro that trips through every genre in 77 seconds, Jonas opens the narrative with "Parachute" and "Work It Out," embodying the mantra that seems to have pulled Joe to find his way back to solo music. Arguably the most JoBros-leaning stylistic tracks on the album, he quips through one-liners that are as amusing as they are introspective, tapping into the synth-rock and pop-rock instrumentals he knows so well. Flipping from "Your anxieties got anxieties / You go to bed with a head full of insecurities / Nobody cares what you said back when you were 17" to "You're seeing everything back, wasn't it so beautiful?," he finally lands ready to embrace what's to come rather than fixating on the past: "Brush your shoulders off / Life's gonna work out."
Dripping with bass lines as sultry and unpredictable as its lyrical content, "Only Love" sees Joe intertwining with a new lover who's reopening his heart to pursuing something new. Settling back into the rhythms of a sweet new love, "Honey Blonde" pops with silky electric guitar runs and an easy "Honey blonde / you can do no wrong." And Music for People Who Believe in Love tumbles through every emotion across all phases of relationships, with "Heart By Heart" lacing an addictive, poppy instrumental through a heartbreakingly tender reflection on love lost.
In a string of collaborations that serve as a sonic representation of those who may fill the lines of our lives between the pages of romantic relations, the back half of Music for People Who Believe in Love dances through a garden of flourishing creative relationships. Jonas leans on music to carry him through, from groovy "Velvet Sunshine" with Franklin Jonas to Americana-rock influenced "Sip Your Wine" with Sierra Ferrell and dreamy, acoustic "Hey Beautiful" with Louane and Tiny Habits.
In a trio of dreamy rock songs to close the album, Joe emerges as having allowed the scabs on his heart to scar over, tender but healed. "You Got the Right" feels like a freeing, windows down, oceanside drive towards finding peace in past loves finding their own happiness, while "What This Could Be" aches to hold on a little longer, with lines like "I'd give up my peace of mind to lose my mind again with you / It might not be safe, but I'm willing to hope." A sonic triumph as great as the feat of allowing love back in to a broken heart, "Constellation" closes Music for People Who Believe in Love with the greatest gift: a reminder that even when some loves die, others can arrive in perfect cosmic alignment, making us believe in love all over again.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JOE JONAS:
