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about this album
In the 2020s, AJR have experienced dizzying highs and crushing moments of sadness: Their swaggering 2020 single "Bang!" became their first Top 10 hit on the Hot 100; they got tapped to write songs for the musical version of treasured children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon; and Gary Metzger, the father of AJR members Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met, passed away after a brutal illness. The Met brothers channeled those peaks and valleys into their fifth full-length, The Maybe Man, a maximalist pop odyssey that faces its existential crises head-on with brutally self-effacing humor, devastating honesty, and densely ornate music. Big hooks and huger arrangements abound; "Hole in the Bottom of My Brain" is a rollicking chronicle of how climbing the ladder soothes the ego that recalls an amped-up cross between Harry Nilsson and Fun., while the stressed-out "I Won't" pairs its lyrics about feeling boxed in by 21st-century norms with horror-movie strings. The band also adds to its own mythology with the sweeping "Turning Out Pt. iii," which sprinkles angst over the perception that "everyone's got it all figured out"; it culminates with Jack Met's voice slicing through the mix with an important message-"don't overthink it"-as the music drops out. The Maybe Man digs in on "God Is Really Real," which opens with a striking line: "My dad can't get out of bed," Jack Met sings over gently strummed guitars. Its simple melody highlights its wrestling with the big issues (mortality, theology, the
