Written By: Daniel Holscher, Staff Writer
TURNING OUT, MAYBE: AJR comes up on the release of their fifth studio album released as a band, incorporating more of their “AJRish” style and charm through the theme of self-discovery
Ordinaryish Beginnings:
AJR, (Adam Met, Jack Met, & Ryan Met) are three brothers of an American Indie Pop band, based in Chelsea, Manhattan in New York City. Adam relays bass and drumming, Jack works with vocals and guitar, and Ryan pursues vocals and piano rhythms. Jack is the youngest of the trio of brothers and sings in most of the songs the three compose. Starting as a teen street performing group on the streets of Manhattan in 2005, the brothers struggled to make ends meet through their undying passion for music. A driving factor in their style of music comes from Ryan’s medical condition, “Synesthesia”, which (in his case) allows him to see/visualize colors, shapes, and textures, with sounds. His perception of musical intuitiveness drives the production of certain songs and music videos during their settings. From their sheltered beginnings, the brothers recorded and produced all of their songs in their living room, just as they do today. They began initially by recording covers, beginning with “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers. This first debut in covers also inspired Pop singer Shawn Mendes to produce covers of his own. Releasing two more CDs in 2010, the Met Brothers’ big breakthrough came in 2012 with their new single, “I’m Ready”
The calling of a lifetime; Living Room and “I’m Ready”:
After releasing their infamous “I’m Ready” single in 2012, AJR’s legacy as artists became the Big Idea of the music industry. On the initial release of “I’m Ready”, Ryan Met tweeted about 80+ celebrities, one of them being Australian singer Sia. Sia told her manager (Steve Greenburg) about the song and AJR was taken to the public radio. “I’m Ready” featuring a sample of Spongebob Squarepants repeatedly singing “I’m Ready” was commercially released on August 22, 2013. AJR had the opportunity to perform on Good Day New York and was placed on Sirius XM Radio’s Top 20 hits. After being named Clear Channel’s upcoming Artist of the Month in 2013, IHeartRadio deemed them Artist of the Month for Top 40 in January 2014. After other miscellaneous singles were released, “I’m Ready” became so much of a pop hit that it was certified Platinum in the U.S. and Australia. On March 3, 2015, “Living Room” would be released, officially starting the clock on their music career. “Living Room” (linked at end of article) contains 13 tracks, one of which is titled “Overture”. During this phase of album releases, AJR would adopt their unique approach to music and distinct appearances as characters. Also coming up with an interesting concept for music, an overture. AJR’s overtures take all the songs from an album and perfectly blend them into one preview one can listen to before the album. The special touch to their music production would prove to make them stand out in the world of artists. AJR was on the rise, and fast. This would also mark the beginning of incorporating personal struggles into everyday music. The song “Pitchfork Kids”, is an exemplification of AJR’s struggles on a website called “Pitchfork Kids”. A toxic community they had to break away from during their music career. Though this album would be mostly love-centered, there is a certain AJR touch to these songs that makes them super relatable and special to the average listener. “My Calling” and “Big Idea” were the first songs to focus on the concept of rising as an artist, the excitement and grit, not yet listing the struggles of that journey. As sung in later songs, the burdens of having musical success would eventually present themselves.
Skipping to The Good Part:
In AJR’s third EP, “What Everyone’s Thinking”, their single “Weak” would happen to be included. The lead single was written within a matter of hours, without any idea of how successful this song would turn out to be in the future. “Weak” has been certified platinum in the U.S., Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Germany, and GOLD, in Italy, Sweden, Austria, U.K., Denmark, and Switzerland. It had gained over 200 Million streams over its first 8 months on Spotify as well, cementing itself in AJR’s fine history. Once again, with the unique AJR twist, the brothers have conceived a new hit single, just in time for their second studio album, “The Click”. “The Click” would happen to be where some of AJR’s most infamous global sensations would spike from. “The Click” would also begin the start of AJR’s touch on thematic songplay. AJR strives to touch on topics and ideas that are new to the music industry, beginning with the internal battle the brothers face when composing music. “Should I go for more clicks this year? Or should I follow the click in my ear?” (Come Hang Out). The Album went live on June 9, 2017, featuring 13 songs, also including an Overture of songs just as “Living Room”. The band’s first album tours began in 2018 in support of the album. Later, “The Click (Deluxe Edition)” would be released with the addition of 4 more tracks, “Normal”, “Pretender” (Acoustic), “Burn the House Down”, and “Role Models”. “Burn the House Down” another hit single, reached number 2 on the Billboard Alternative Play Chart. Rounding up their sparks of success, the brothers were able to compose a song for the Obama administration, “It’s on Us” combating the concepts of Sexual Violence in America, and performed in the White House in 2017. Adam, Jack, and Ryan started developing auras for their fun and engaging characters. “The Click” also marked the start of the “Turning Out” series, the first being sung by Jack Met. Turning Out deals with the uncertainty and uneasiness of growing and developing as an individual in a relationship, reflecting Ryan’s own personal experience at the time. As Jack’s voice was more fitting for this song, Ryan stayed as the composer of the lyrics, until his own debut within “Turning Out Pt. II” in their “Neotheater “ album. AJR began their descent into their own music style. Blending of instruments, unusual samples, pitching, and production processing. It wouldn’t be for another 2 years until AJR had completed their third album as brothers, “Neotheater”. Neotheater leads us to the perfect exemplification of AJR’s approach to music and rhythm.
Wow, The Karma’s Here:
In 2019, The Met brothers released the song “100 Bad Days”, later becoming a track on the Neotheater album. A music video was released on March 8, following its January 31st initial release date. “100 Bad Days” was included on Taylor Swift’s Apple Music playlist, “Playlist by ME”. The description is, “Maybe a hundred bad days made 100 good stories, 100 good stories make me interesting at parties”, (the chorus of 100 Bad Days) to describe her picks. 2 days after the 100 Bad Days music video, “Birthday Party” was teased in a series of snippets on their website. On March 12, “Birthday Party” was released, announcing the Neotheater album’s release date for the 26th of April, 2019. AJR’s shift in musical talent was very apparent in their next album. The topics of the songs became a lot of relatable and personal to everyday life, their sampling and unique topics of satisfaction were truly brewing. A good example of a unique sampling would be from Birthday Party, the bridge lyrics, “In heaven, everything is fine…”. This sample comes from the 1970’s horror film, “Eraserhead”, inspired by when Jack and Ryan were sitting in their film class, watching the movie. “100 Bad Days” was able to be played on Jimmy Kimmel Live before the album’s release; and finally, the moment AJR fans were waiting for, Neotheater. Neotheater completely flipped what was considered possible by the Met brothers. It would be difficult to put into words, but I highly recommend everyone to listen to Neotheater, it’s something you couldn’t pass up. Neotheater embodies the dramatic journey that travels through expectation, hope, downfall, moving on, self-reflection, and love. The feeling of not wanting to fall back or move forward too much. The feeling of letting go. From Neotheater onwards, I will begin to describe more songs within the albums and their connection to the album’s overall message and unique standpoint. Released on April 26, Neotheater came to life with 12 studio tracks. This album would be the first without a song titled “Overture”, or so it seemed… Ryan Met and Jack Met later confirmed in a live stream that the overture was placed throughout the album. Tiny bits and pieces of other songs were within songs on the album. The album’s opener, “Next Up Forever” has the line “Welcome to the Neotheater” as does the album’s closer “Finale” (We can’t wait to see what you do next). Though this is a tiny reference, I highly encourage you to listen to the album and find them yourself, as they are super subtle and brain-stimulating to hear once you get them.
“Karma”
This album also introduces the chaotic ambiance within their songs, in terms of overlapping vocals and instruments perfectly coinciding. As someone who finds myself hyper-focused every moment of the day, AJR’s music blend allows me to hear every part of the song and appreciate it. The instrumental of their songs allows one to truly recognize the layers behind success. As mentioned earlier, “Turning Out Pt. II” was released in this album, as the 6th track once more (this will be important later), with Ryan Met being the lead vocals and once again, composer. “Turning Out Pt. II” deals with the acceptance of leaving a relationship, it is Ryan realizing that maybe he never truly loved said individual, and has to accept the fact that his false love was not true. He knows this will deeply hurt the other individual, but needs to do what’s best for him. The “Turning Out” series would prove to be one that became the face of albums, as Ryan would later marry his girlfriend. “Karma” introduces the deep feelings of Jack Met as he spirals through his downfalls of being an upcoming artist, ending the song with a verse of no breaths, playing for 30 seconds, embodying the need for validation as someone seeing a therapist. It was also later revealed by Jack that he was seeing a therapist during that time. While this album would get more personal with the boys, the AJR fans would also find love to this, as AJR’s topic picks are plentiful among human nature. Then kickstarted the Neotheater world tour, ranging from the U.S. to Eastern Europe. The Mets were able to put lots of funds into this next tour and made sure to perfect visuals and other entertainment throughout. This tour marked the beginning of AJR’s infamous touring fashions. “Finale (We can’t wait to see what you do next)” sparked confusion in AJR’s ending. The finale focused on the concept of AJR’s falling of an artist after some attention, the fear of losing popularity, and hence the closing lines. “If it’s my final album, and if I am forgotten, I hope I made you smile, that’s all I ever wanted”. The emotions put into this line and the concept of a choir and orchestra put into the background make this an emotional masterpiece. This is a super good album closer. Speaking of orchestra, AJR had some interesting inquiries on the concept of that… An OK concept.
“Finale” (We Can’t Wait to See What You Do Next)
OK, “The Truth is that I’m Screwed”
Throughout the Neotheater World Tour, Adam, Jack, and Ryan had been writing behind the scenes for the fourth studio album, “OK Orchestra” (OKO). On February 12, 2020, “Bang!” was released as a single, showing its inclusion in the album’s release. “Bang!” was intended to be a Deluxe song for Neotheater, but was scrapped and made the lead single for OKO last minute. “Bang!” was an automatic hit. “Bang!” was awarded a Billboard Music Award for Top Rock Song of 2021, and peaked at #8 in singles within the U.S. that year. The solidification of AJR was achieved, now all that is left to do is produce and envision. On August 31st, 2020, AJR released “Bummerland”, another debut on the album released in the next few months. Bummerland was originally titled “Outside”, most knowingly attempting to describe the emotions one was feeling during quarantine. There are a lot of songs that either get scrapped or retitled throughout AJR’s writing process, and it proves worth it to dig deep and discover what could have been. Such as “Adventure is Out There”, the 6th track on the OK orchestra. Originally meant for Neotheater, it was titled “Socks”. A snippet of the demo for “Socks” was played by Ryan, showing in which Jack was originally the lead singer, with the vibrancy of neotheater present. I recommend digging deeper if you are interested in that. The aura of OK Orchestra was coming to life. Ryan Met wanted the allusion to “the singing of instruments” as the album progressed, hence the name “OK Orchestra”. “My Play” and “Way Less Sad” were the last two singles released before the album’s release on the 26th of March, 2021. OK Orchestra deals with the coping of past thoughts and having the ability to pick oneself up again in times of need. The album holds 13 songs. One song, “The Trick” deals with the idea of a compulsive liar. The chorus, “And if you run from me, then I’ll use my trick on you, the truth is that I’m screwed” envisions a relationship filled with one individual who compulsively lies. They can’t get away from that idea and know that they will eventually falter from it. “Humpty Dumpty” deals with the feeling of needing to hide your emotions from others in order to preserve their worries.
“If I try
To keep my tears in my eyes
Would you like me?, Would you like me?, Would you like me?”
Similar to Humpty Dumpty, “Bummerland” deals with the topic of celebrating the idea of your all-time low, treating it as an opportunity to “only go up from here”. As AJR progressed, they started incorporating more unique concepts into their songs. One I find super interesting is “Joe”.
“Joe” is a song seemingly about an individual trying to prove to a past bully that they are “cool” now. Joe actually happens to be the name of Ryan’s childhood bully in primary school. Ending the song with,
“Maybe I’ll put out this song, and I won’t change your name at all. Maybe then you’ll call me up, and you’ll tell me how cool I got”. “Joe” actually did end up reaching out to AJR, as Ryan mentioned in a livestream. Now, the rendition of the “Turning Out” series. In this album, fans were definitely expecting Turning Out Pt. III to be another added to the trilogy of Turning Outs. But as the track list was released, no Turning Out was to be found. Individuals speculated that this may be a song that comes out on the next album, maybe… As Ryan set down Turning Out, Jack picked up “Christmas In June” seemingly describing his own relationship. This song deals with the idea of being so busy in the midst of your relationship, that you have to twist and bend plans to make things work. This is why “Can we do Christamas in June?” fits so well. As the Mets grow, so do their lyrics, they each have a life to pursue being in their early twenties and want to share that experience with the world. That’s what makes AJR so popular to growing individuals, the extremely emotional and mentally draining aspects of becoming a young adult. It is perfectly encapsulated within their song lyrics.
With the release of this album, we were back to the introduction of Overtures. Track #1 is “Ok Overture”, going back to the roots of the Mets’ talent to blend all songs into one harmonious track. Two songs had a massive spike in popularity, establishing AJR officiality as an artist. First, “The Good Part” from “The Click” had a massive spike in plays as the sound was used avidly through social media such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts. AJR released a music video in November of 2021 for “The Good Part”. Next would be “The World’s Smallest Violin”. This song had an interesting tempo change at the end of its playing, making it perfect for sound effects on TikTok and YouTube. With the spike in popularity. AJR announced the OK Orchestra tour, which would be bigger and better than their previous Neotheater tour. More visuals, more interactivity, and new teasers for the next album, maybe. And, they were not lying, the OK Orchestra tour was a HUGE hit success by Jack, Ryan, and Adam. 50,000+ Album sales were made in the first week of OK orchestra release. And the album became top 10 on the billboards. The brothers also launched their rendition of the AJR merch store (linked below):
https://store.ajrbrothers.com/
Finally being able to make a living off of their hard work, everything seemed to be going amazing for the brothers. AJR was thriving with 40.1 Million listeners on all music platforms, but still, the best was yet to come. As the tour continued, so did production. After the hype of OK Orchestra was digested by fans, the intuitiveness of a fifth album was apparent, maybe. AJR stayed quiet on all socials for an extended period of time, but came back with a teaser in the form of a post on all of their socials that read, “Finishing up this new song, should we play it on tour, maybe?”
The Maybe Man:
That one teaser has single-handedly led us here. To “The Maybe Man”. Releasing November 10th, The Maybe Man is an album of self-exploration, the feeling of “Oh my gosh, is this going to be me for the rest of my life?”. There are 13 tracks to The Maybe Man. “Maybe Man”, is the opener for the album. Leaked lyrics go towards, “I wish that my brain would triple in size, I’d nail every joke, I’d win every fight…” “Maybe man” seems to present the album with its theme of the Maybe Man that is inside of every person, shifting and guiding their life. “Touchy Feely Fool”, is a song about struggling to let go of a situation that is bad for you, being blinded by your own yearning for validation. “Yes I’m A Mess”, is a song about loving yourself for not being the best you possibly can be, coping with the struggles of keeping up with everyday life. “The Dumb Song” is a song about feeling inadequate and worthless, but finding a sense of freedom and love in that scenario, loving the feeling.”Inertia”. From what we know so far, Inertia means to remain in a state of being unchanged. This song will most likely morph into the pressure of changing and not wanting to do that when growing as a person. “Turning Out Pt. III” is another addition to the turning out series. While Turning Out Pt. I dealt with the uncertainty and confusion of growing and finding yourself, and Turning Out Pt. II dealt with the coping of realizing that a certain relationship didn’t match the lifestyle planned, Pt. III takes another step. Pt. III asks the question, “Is this the person I want to spend the rest of my life with?”. The feeling of “Is this the right person?”. Ryan Met describes life as feeling better “when you can narrow your horizons down faster”. “Hole in the Bottom of My Brain”, this song has no context from any leaks. But, from the title, we can presume this song can deal with the thoughts everyone has at the back of their mind, haunting them. “The DJ is Crying for Help” is a song putting you in the position of a “DJ” (Young-adult) watching everyone else grow around you while having trouble finding yourself. “I Won’t” is a song about not giving in to social norms and the pressures of modern society, and standing strong as an individual. “Steve’s Going to London”. This song has had its chorus leaked. I would like to interpret this song as accepting the paths that everyone takes in life. It may not cater to your needs, but individuals will grow, they will leave, they will stay, they will do anything they’d like. You just have to accept that. “God is Really Real” a song remembering the resting soul of their recently passed father, showing how in times of grief people will settle on anything to solidify comfort. “2085”. A song pondering on the inevitable death and aging of oneself, finding acceptance in that fate. “Hey, I’d hate to have to die ‘fore I get my head together…whatever”. Finally, Track 13. With the aura of the album being about self-discovery and the passing of AJR’s father, they have decided to release track 13 at a later date, due to its upbeat and passive nature. So, here is “The Maybe Man”. Releasing very very soon. As I make my debut, I would like to give praise to AJR. AJR has helped me in numerous ways. AJR has helped me find the type of person I want to be, AJR has taught me the love and beauty in the evil ways of society and people. AJR has taught me that it’s okay to feel uncertain and afraid, just as long as you are happy in the end. I would not be where I am today without AJR. Thank you, Adam, Jack, and Ryan. For writing numerous songs about the dreadful and awesome experiences and thoughts an individual in High School may have. For helping millions of others find their way through the struggles of young adulthood. It helps us out. In some weird way, we’re all a “Maybe Man”, perhaps a “Touchy Feely Fool ”, or maybe a “Steve” in someone’s life. But one thing is for certain, we’re all still turning out. I encourage you to listen to The Maybe Man. Who knows, maybe you’ll be led somewhere new, interesting, frightful, intriguing. But that’s just a messy thought. Maybe?