The spark for Joe Jonas’ first solo album since 2011 arrived on the road. While driving from Los Angeles to Houston in advance of Jonas Brothers playing the Houston Rodeo in 2024, he stopped by national parks like Joshua Tree, and his trip’s soundtrack involved him getting back in touch with his musical roots. “Driving through on that road trip, [I was] inspired by what I was seeing and what I was hearing,” he tells Apple Music. Jonas’ listening on that long drive included a lot of country music and the alt-rock that he grew up on, and when he got back to Los Angeles, he was ready to turn the music in his head into actual songs. Music for People Who Believe in Love stands apart from Jonas’ chart-topping work with his brothers and the party-playlist funk pop he makes as leader of DNCE because of its genre fluidity and its feeling. On the live-wire cut “Work It Out,” he dives inside his head in an effort to make sense of it, mulling over why “some days, I wanna float away” as a peppy beat echoes the fast-paced world he’s immersed in. “You Got the Right” is a loose-limbed, country-tinged offering with chiming guitars, Jonas sounding almost bashful as he lets someone know that he loves them enough to potentially let them go, while the pensive closing cut, “Constellation,” pairs its ruminating with glittery guitars and charging drums. Jonas also brought in guests for Music—his brother Franklin appears on the punky “Velvet Sunshine,” while others reflect his widening musical palette: Brazilian pop supernova Luisa Sonza faces off with him on the simmering flirtation “What We Are,” and Americana alchemist Sierra Ferrell is his foil on the twangy “Sip Your Wine.” There, Jonas adopts a curled-lip drawl that adds a low-level thrill to open-road romance lyrics like “Thousand miles left till Reno, let’s sit back and waste some time.” Digging into his deepest feelings while exploring new musical avenues was, Jonas said, a way for him to express gratitude over how far he’s come. “I’m really happy, and I’m grateful,” he says. “I’ve got amazing family and friends around me, and I get to do something that makes other people feel really good. How lucky am I? This is a reflection of hope and love—meeting me where I’m at now and sharing that with the world.”