The emergence of New York City’s sexy drill movement couldn’t have come at a better time for Staten Island native wolfacejoeyy. Though he’d already begun to hash out the particulars of his sound by the time Cash Cobain and Chow Lee dropped their pioneering 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy mixtape in 2022, joeyy was undergoing artistic growing pains. For the past few years, he’d been chopping it up in group chats with the underground’s then-buzziest upstarts, like SoFaygo, Slump6s, and Yung Fazo, exploring the moment’s pastel-streaked, melodic trap sound. Though he had a knack for writing the sticky, falsetto-laden choruses favored by his peers, joeyy’s more ambitious output indicated a desire to break from SoundCloud rap’s superficial and often overstimulating conventions.

The best of his early cuts were refreshingly organic, backed by baroque string arrangements and mixed with comparatively subtle vocal processing chains. Those effects allowed joeyy to flex his impressive singing chops, while accenting the youthful idiosyncrasies in his voice. After notching a minor TikTok hit with the Jersey club-inspired “buku,” he joined Cash and Chow in the studio to record “weekend,” a gritty R&B track that foreshadowed the rawer sound of his more recent body of work. Trading prurient bars over disintegrated sub-bass and keyboard arpeggios straight out of a platformer video game’s aquatic level, joeyy was finally in his element: His starry-eyed idealism was the perfect foil for his collaborators’ endearing sleaze.

“Weekend” appeared on last summer’s 22Joeyy EP, but seems to have catalyzed the aesthetic of Valentino, his first full-length album. Its beats center on quasi-acoustic timbres that suggest a “live” feel, instead of the synth-driven wizardry that has defined the recent wave of DIY pop rap. Jazzy piano chords creak and echo. Backing vocalists weave rich harmonies on “don’t be dishonest.” Fingerpicked guitars underscore interludes. This pursuit of intimacy also extends to joeyy’s pen. Wistfully recalling hookups in triplet flows and licentious detail, he tends to offer songcraft that is more story-driven and cohesive than the horny punchlines that have defined the subgenre thus far.

Opener “stop trippin bout girls u don’t know” follows the trajectory of a short-lived situationship—from initial flirtation to the inevitable fallout that occurs when joeyy can’t commit. The track leaves out kicks and 808 pulses almost entirely, paring the production down to chirping hats, droning bass, and elegant synth brass layers. The roominess allows joeyy to experiment more easily: He makes short leaps into higher octaves and imbues the exchange between him and his love interest with voice-cracking intensity. The music may be dreamy ear candy, but the depth and structure of joeyy’s craft puts him a rung above his peers.

On “solar,” he takes Valentino’s strangest beat—springy, bitcrushed bass drums and wacky samples that conjure images of a footrace between Looney Tunes characters—and flips the screwball vibe on its head, inviting listeners to follow him as he tries to numb fresh heartbreak in the middle of a rowdy function. As he’s contemplating the strangely dissociative effects of his weed, joeyy disappears from the track entirely, letting the instrumental ride out for a full minute. It’s an unconventional decision, but it works well within Valentino’s loose narrative, which transitions from an initial stretch of gloomy songs to its ecstatic middle portion. A lesser artist dipping out on the track like this might read as a case of poor editing, but joeyy is charismatic and detail-oriented enough to land the stunt.

Halfway through Valentino, joeyy plays to his greatest strengths, ping-ponging between blown-out Jersey club stomps and impressionist keys. On “cake,” he’s head over heels as he volleys pickup lines with his crush—so in the zone, he’s practically panting between bars like a tennis pro. Lines like, “I told her she sexy, she said ‘period purr,’” and “My pockets blue like Sonic and her pussy pink like Amy” might seem like a tough sell, but they’re delivered with such sincerity that you’ll want them custom-printed on candy hearts. “don’t be dishonest” features gorgeous multi-part backing harmonies performed by London R&B songwriter Moses Ideka, lending joeyy’s delivery a religious fervor as he offers healing to a potential partner. Only “double tap,” a quirky club tune that resembles the synth-funk inspired bounce of Ice Spice’s “Think U the Shit (Fart)” or Lunchbox’s New Jazz mixtape slows the momentum, its busy topline forcing joeyy to rein in his melodic impulses.

Now that he’s finally old enough to frequent the clubs he makes music for, wolfacejoeyy has migrated from the realm of bedroom producers and Discord servers into the real world. He’s benefiting from more developed song structures and writing his most mature, evocative songs yet. His hooks are still unshakeable, but the tiny details and ingenious melodic flourishes that surround them make each listen feel like a small adventure. Valentino hits like downing a flat white when you really should be sleeping: It’s a jolt of restless euphoria that’ll have you ready to leave the house at all costs, wandering in search of anyone’s company—or anything to do.