AJR’s ‘The Maybe Man’ Album Review: A Joyful Reprise

Buoyed by a diverse soundboard of chamber pop orchestration and electronic samples, indie-pop band AJR’s music basks in and occasionally confronts the daunting, joyous mess of growing up. Given that it’s produced by New-York based brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met, the band’s focus on adolescence feels like a natural choice.

“We tend to try to cling to our childhood a little bit,” observed Ryan Met about the band’s 2020 single “Bang!”. Indeed, their 2021 album “OK ORCHESTRA” took this theme to heart with tracks brimming with youthful zest like “Adventure Is Out There” and “Humpty Dumpty.” With their newest album “The Maybe Man," released on Nov. 10, AJR seeks to leave behind the stories of their childhood and face the insecurities of adulthood.

Along with more mature themes, the album adds richer arrangements and vocals to the group’s established indie-pop playbook. Overall, the efforts produce a catchy, enjoyable listen that develops the group’s sound. Despite flashes of promise, the album doesn’t fully realize the new AJR it hints at, reverting to well-worn pop hooks and a child’s view of the world.

The album opens with its titular track, which announces the group’s arrival with a driving pop beat backed by a sweeping string orchestra. Jack Met’s clean vocals soar on top of the swelling mixture of sound as he fantasizes about shedding insecurity. The dreams start small, grounded in the trials of everyday life — “Wish I was a stone, so I couldn’t feel / You’d yell in my face, it’d be no big deal,” Met sings — but, as the flurry of strings intensifies, so do the lyrics’ frustration and scope as the brothers dwell on the inevitable end to college-frat parties and dream of playing God. The earnest, if a little trite, cry of “I wish I was me, whoever that is,” resolves the track’s frustrations before leading into a cathartic electronic breakdown.

Many of the records on the track function similarly by exhibiting the group’s acoustic prowess and dwelling on the anxieties of adult life. “The Dumb Song” is an easy-going, alternative rock beat that evokes The Cure’s driving percussion and bright guitar backing but supplements it with a jubilant brass choir. The well-packaged track is a welcome break from the pop beats that precede it and justifies the “eclectic” label AJR assigns to its music. The carefree-sounding vocals drip with irony as Met rebounds from an argument — “You said with certainty / I may be the dumbest person that you’ve ever seen” — by interpreting the insult as a release of liability from the relationship. The next lyric, “When kingdom come / Don't look at me, don't look at me / I'm just too dumb,” teases the chorus. By the final repetition of this triumphant chorus, however, this declaration stops feeling like a clever comeback and more like shirking responsibility. After all, shouldn’t there be some renewed commitment to the relationship or at least to a self-affirming way to move on from it? Instead, the carefree celebration, blaring trumpets at all, ends up feeling short-sighted.

AJR doesn’t quite find a way to marry their bubbly pop palette with their more serious contemplations of life beyond the teenage years. “The DJ is Crying for Help” represents a good effort in that direction. Over electric piano arpeggios and subdued percussion, the chorus laments crooning “I’m all seventeen at thirty-five / Now I don't know if there's anything else / The DJ is cryin' for help.” The tone the Met brothers strike recalls Mike Posner’s brand of self-aware, thoughtful pop that eschews the drugs and forever-young revelries of mainstream pop music. It’s a solid attempt with a catchy beat, but the lyrics fall flat. The main hook in the song hinges on the less than mellifluous pun, “Hired, hired, can I get hired? / I got no skills except gettin' high.”

If some of the self-aware, ironic tracks feel a little manufactured on “The Maybe Man,” the devastating “God is Really Real” offers a compelling example of AJR’s ability to craft contemplative and emotionally rich pieces. Written to the Met brothers’ father, who passed away earlier this year, the open-hearted and tender track showcases sparse, yet real lyrics that sit lightly on tender guitar arpeggios and swelling strings: “And each day when the world wakes up / Our lawns will still be wet / And my dad can't get out of bed.” Gone are the need for catchy turns of phrase and jaded hedonism, making room for a moving portrait of love and grief.

“The Maybe Man” sits in a familiar place for listeners of AJR’s catchy indie-pop tunes. The album comes with pleasant surprises that showcase a new look for the band as it dives into the world after the adolescent milieu of its earlier works. Though the album suggests that the Met brothers may have some way left to go in synthesizing this sound, the joy their ebullient beats bring is undeniable. Just as childhood spirit and memories have a role to play in all stages of life, so do the catchy, feel-good tunes of pop music.

—Staff writer Andrew K. Choe can be reached at andrew.choe@thecrimson.com.