Today's "top ten songs" topic is a band called AJR. AJR is made up of three brothers: Adam, Jack, and Ryan. (I feel the need to tell you this because I didn't actually know that until I looked it up.) The eldest of these three brothers was born in 1990, which makes me feel super old.
I've only known about this band since summer 2018, and they made their way very quickly into my heart/iTunes. James and I first really listened to them when we took a short trip to Bemidji, and I fell hard. A central theme of many of AJR's songs is the feeling of not being good enough and a fear of having to truly grow up. Those ideas speak to me, just like the themes of loneliness and a sense of not belonging used by the Killers and Twenty-One Pilots.
Anyway. Here are my ten favourite AJR songs. I hope you find something you like.
Sober Up
I really like having a song to pinpoint when I look back on my favourite bands. "Sober Up" was the first song of AJR's I ever heard. Where? Who knows. I don't listen to much radio besides NPR, so it wasn't on the radio. Probably Pandora. Doesn't matter. "Sober Up" is about a feeling of numbness and some depression that can come with getting older. "I just wanna feel something again," they sing. It's also about feigning happiness: "we smile at party time/but soon we forget to smile at anything else." I have definitely felt this in some of my more trying times, and it's comforting to hear it put into words.
My Calling
As far as AJR's albums go, their first one is my least favourite. I don't like the first album as much because it doesn't dive deep into those uncomfortable feelings as the later albums. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have its great songs, and this is one of them. One of the other things I like a lot about AJR is their use of electronics in their music. This song has all sorts of interesting electronic music, and I haven't heard anything like it. Plus, it's catchy as hell.
Come Hang Out
"Come Hang Out" was right up there with "Sober Up" in popularity in summer 2018, so this was the other song I kind of knew. It deals with trying to balance friendship and work. They sing about working so hard on their album and trying to be as successful as possible, all while turning down invitations from their friends to hang out. However, the friends don't seem too supportive: "You haven't gone that far; you can find a real job." Even so, there's a sort of lamentation: "I'll be there next time." Will there be a next time?
Call My Dad
I love this song so much: no matter how old you are, if you need some help, you just want to call your dad. I also really love the echo from the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B": "I feel so broke up/I wanna go home." The singer has had a night partying with his friends, but when it all goes wrong, all he wants to do is call his dad.
Bud Like You
This song is obviously about smoking weed. It's not the lyrics that make this song great; it's the incredibly catchy tune. It's got a weird rhythm and is part drinking-song. You just have to listen to it.
Next Up Forever
"Next Up Forever" is the first song off AJR's newest album. It starts with what sounds like a 1940s men's singing group... you just might have to listen to it for that to make sense. It's about the anticipation leading up to doing something great and how we want to hang onto that. It's about how we are all afraid that we have hit our peak: "I'm kinda scared of graduation/cause who am I when this is done?/I wanna be next up forever/so the best is always yet to come."
100 Bad Days
This song speaks to the very title of my blog: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Or, in reality, what doesn't kill you will eventually make a good story: "A hundred bad days make a hundred good stories/A hundred good stories make me interesting at parties." Is that not the absolute truth? No one wants to hear about all the wonderful things that have happened to you. They want to hear about how you fell flat on your face. My best stories involve something stupid I did or something terrible happening to me. Thanks to AJR for giving me a theme song.
Karma
The first thing I need to say is that while I am an atheist, I am a firm believer in karma. Interestingly enough, karma is also a Wiccan belief known as the Rule of Three: whatever energy a person puts out into the world (positive or negative) will be returned to that person three times. So maybe I'm not actually an atheist, but a pagan. I'm getting off track. This song is about how even if you are a good person, karma doesn't always pay you back when you want it to. The song is framed as a conversation with a therapist, asking "I've been so good/why am I feeling empty?" Great question. The very end of the song gets faster and faster and shows the desperation at the end of the session: "You say that I'm better/Why don't I feel better?/The universe works in mysterious ways/But I'm starting to think it ain't working for me."
Dear Winter
"Dear Winter" is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. The narrator is singing to his child, named Winter. It sounds like a dad singing to a newborn about what they would do later in life ("Dear Winter, I hope you like your name"), but you quickly realize Winter doesn't exist: "I'm hoping that someday, I can meet you on this Earth/But shit, I gotta meet your mom first." It's such deep sadness coming from a place of loneliness - will the narrator ever find the woman for him? Will he get to start this family that he so clearly desires? "But Winter, it won't be too long/First I just gotta find your mom."
Don't Throw Out My Legos
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On that note about the real struggle of growing up (I'm 33 and I'm not there yet), this is where I leave you. If you want to look back at my ten favourite songs from my other favourite bands, follow the links:
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