On March 26, 2021 the band AJR released their new album OK ORCHESTRA. This band of three brothers has a relatively regular schedule of releasing a new album every other year as they have done with their most recent three albums: The Click (2017), Neotheater (2019), and now OK ORCHESTRA (2021).
I am still partial to their other two recent albums and have many songs on them that I consider AJR classics, I do enjoy a handful of the songs on this new album! AJR’s music is typically upbeat and has interesting, prominent instrumentation. Their lyrics are sometimes a bit all over the place continuity-wise but each song always ties all of its lyrical components together by the end to produce a message, which I think is an important aspect of music that many songs skip out on in modern music.
Without further ado, here are my top 5 favorites from AJR’s 2021 album, OK ORCHESTRA:
5. “Christmas in June”
This song is an exchange between the singer and his love interest, beginning each stanza of lyrics with a different holiday or event that the singer missed out on being there with his lover due to being too busy as a performer and working to advance his career. For example, instead of spending time with his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve and sharing a New Year’s kiss when the Times Square ball drops, he was at a festival in New Orleans while she was in Tribeca and missed out on that yearly special moment.
The pre-chorus and chorus demonstrate how the singer feels badly that he keeps missing out on these moments with his love interest and that he always leaves her lonely on holidays when they should be together. He makes up for it by saying how hard he will try to never miss plans like this with her again, since she matters so much to him, shown through lyrics, “You’re no longer gonna be the plan I miss / I won’t ever let you down, but just in case / Can we do Christmas in June?”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhSSnD5u3iM
4. “Ordinaryish People” (feat. Blue Man Group)
This song demonstrates the dichotomy of having different groups of friends who each perceive you differently. People often dislike the fact that so many people view us as a different person than we actually are, and they will never truly know exactly who we are and why we act the way we do.
Some lyrics that express this include, “Your happy friends call you depressing / ‘Cause you wonder why we’re all alive / Your downer friends think you’re too happy, too happy / ‘Cause you still celebrate sometimes”. It also brings up themes about the speaker’s “hippie friends” calling him a sellout for getting a real job, and then also dealing with teasing from his work friends calling him a hippie since he gets high sometimes.
Overall, bunking people into certain groups in our minds never is beneficial for the person we perceive or ourselves, as it lessens our mindset and ability to view people as unique, multifaceted beings. Not everyone needs to fit in with only one group, and that is what keeps life and meeting people interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hcEQqZpW8&list=RD19hcEQqZpW8&start_radio=1&t=29
3. “Bang!”
This song was one of my all time favorites from summer 2020, as it was originally released as a single which was incredibly popular. I often could not go a full day without hearing some part of the song whether online, on the radio, or being played in a store. “Bang!” is a fun, feel-good song about how it’s best to “go out with a bang” instead of fading into obscurity, especially when discussing how AJR wants to be remembered as a music group since they are not sure how long they will remain popular.
This song can also be applicable to anything that is culminating, and how it is often preferable to end on a high note rather than ending it in a mediocre, subpar way. This song was played a lot when I went to my senior beach week with friends in June 2020, as we missed out on many end-of-high school experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we were glad that we were still able to take enough safety precautions together to have one last memorable experience for the end of our senior year. It’s funny: I never realized how much the song “Bang!” applied to us at that moment of walking away from the experience of high school and ending it on a high note despite the previous cancellations and disappointments along the road. At the time it was just a new fun song to sing along to, but now it holds a deeper meaning to me.
2. “Bummerland”
This song was also released as a single in late August 2020. I first heard this song after recently having moved into college, and it provided me with a sense of optimism. After the past nearly six months of quarantine due to the pandemic at that point, the song’s reassuring words, “Bummerland, here I am / Better nix my summer plans / Bummerland, give a cheer / ‘Cause you’re only going up from here” resonated with me as I felt, as many people felt at the time, that the majority of my year had been wasted staying inside to stay safe from COVID-19. Other than the senior beach week with my friend group, I rarely saw my friends (or anyone other than my immediate family) for the whole time.
I connected to this song because I felt seen in the sense that it recognized the experience I was going through of being disappointed, yet the line “You’re only going up from here” helped me feel optimistic about starting my new college experience, which has been still safe for the pandemic but extremely fun and a wonderful experience. I am thankful for this upbeat song that reminds me that sooner or later, everything will be better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yU8OwTL9H4
1. “3 O’Clock Things”
This song is my favorite new one from the album! Many of the lyrics and themes in the song are generally relatable in the way that we don’t really know the real version of everyone, and how people often do things because it’s what everyone else is doing. The song starts out with a similar message to “Bummerland”, singing, “Come on guy, I promise everything will be alright, be okay / Your eyes are tired but keep ’em open / ‘Cause you wouldn’t want to miss a thing”. These motivational words followed by the concept of people not truly understanding us is an interesting mix to me.
The main reason I am drawn to this song, though, is the instrumentation in the beginning and music breaks throughout the song. Something about including brass music, percussion, and the selected voice effects in the introduction made the song stand out to me and enticed me to continue listening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZcKPP40ogo
Thanks for reading this blog about AJR’s OK ORCHESTRA, which song is your favorite?