On Friday, April 26, 2019, the iconic brother band, AJR, released their much-anticipated album 'Neotheater'. The brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met have been working extremely hard on the album for almost two years since their last album drop in 2017 when they released 'The Click.'
I have been an avid AJR fan since their debut album 'Living Room' in 2015. After listening extensively to their new album, I am super impressed with how much the Met brothers have grown as artists. AJR has a very unique and creative sound I have yet to find anything quite like. In their new album, they continue with their signature sound that follows no rules but their own.
Something AJR fans are psyched about is the band's easter eggs within the album. AJR posted on Instagram two days after the album release that within each song is a part of another song. The Met brothers told us the easter egg could be as simple as a lyric or as subtle as a cello melody. I have found a few of the correlating lines in the songs, but they are not all easy.
In addition to the easter eggs, the songs on the album seem to be more up to the listener to interpret than their last album. 'The Click' had lyrics that were easy to interpret and obvious as to what the band wanted the listeners to take away while 'Neotheater' seems to be a bit more complicated. With that said, here are a few of my favorite songs and what I think they mean.
The album starts out with a song titled "Next Up Forever". It is quite the theatrical song. It is all about the anticipation just before you do something big and great. That feeling of excitement and anticipation is debatably better than when you actually do said thing. One of my favorite songs on the album and does a wonderful job setting the mood for the new record.
The most political song is titled "Birthday Party" and just happens to be the second song on the album. The song is from the point of view of a baby just brought into the world and is lucky enough to be so unaware of all the problems in the world today. The innocent baby says things like "I bet my country's nice to immigrants" or "I bet our parents always stay in love" which are both realities that everyone knows are not true. The blind faith children hold in the world are expressed in the song and the lyrics are just so ironic it is almost saddening.
The ballad on the album is titled "Turning Out Pt. ii" and is a sad (almost) love song. The chorus "I think I probably wasn't in love with you, I think I loved the idea of you… I said it back to you cause you said it first" really hit close to home. Ryan Met, the song singer, and writer says the song is about the sad truth that sometimes we aren't really in love and it is a horrible thing to say you never actually loved someone, but it happens.
To hear more of "Neotheater," check out ajrbrothers.com to see merch, songs, and tour dates.
