I gave AJR a shake after hearing a couple songs and hearing about the relationship between Jon's fans and their fans. I really like Living Room, it's got this childlike allure to it and the sound is really unique with their dubstep influences, a lot of the concepts they portray in that album are executed in an interesting way. I'm willing to give most of Living Room a pass for it being released in the very beginning of their careers, but I really think they had this spark of hope and creativity that kind of got squashed out lyrically after that album; after that, their sound becomes a bit derivative and the more creative elements of their music are overshadowed by their awful lyricism.

It's fascinating going between some of my favorite artists vs AJR and seeing some of the cringeworthy things they will say in their songs. The overall issue I have with their lyricism is that it's extremely on the nose and they talk about shallow, boring things in a shallow, boring way. Contrast THC with The Click. THC had Woodstock cut from it because the vision of the album was focused on being able to be listened to by any human and to be able to relate to the concepts, feelings, and experiences in it. The Click is sort of all over the place, thematically focusing on partying, alcohol, and the artist's complaints with being an artist and not getting enough attention. At its best it focuses on childhood nostalgia (Sober Up) but it's quickly overshadowed by poor lyricism. Netflix Trip has an interesting premise: describe your life as though it's a show being binged on Netflix. But it's so on the nose that it hardly leaves you wondering about it later. A Jon song, you can listen to many times over months and months without realizing what it truly means. An AJR song tends to be understood by the 2nd listen and gets old really quick. Jon's lyrics are far more mature and frankly more intelligent. In Cautionary Tales, Jon speaks of an elusive artist from the third person, shutting down fame, hiding in the shadows, but keeping his pen sharp enough, striking down gods and killing armies. AJR talks about being happy about not being famous (I'm Not Famous), cutting off friends and avoiding people due to being a workaholic (Come Hang Out), wondering if someone they thought were cool as kids thinks they're cool for being famous (Joe), and, most frustratingly to me, if a popular brand of headphone sponsored them, they could pay $20k for the recording costs of the song itself (Beats). It's boring and unrelatable. I hate hearing the juxtaposition of someone bragging about how they played shows in Belarus (Joe) and around the world in general, yet he can't get his shit together and pay for his own drinks and how he wants his friends expecations for him to be so low that him adhering to the bare minimum expectation of paying for your own drinks makes him a hero in their eyes (Bummerland). I feel like playing shows around the world and creating certified platinum records should get you enough money to buy your own drinks. It's just kind of pathetic and frustrating to listen to as someone who makes $13/hr and yet can still buy my own shit. He speaks of not being able to choose between playing live shows on tour and literally being there for his partner giving birth to their child (Christmas in June). IDK about you but if I was having a child I'd probably prioritize that over anything else. Again, it reads as pretty pathetic. AJR fans tend to disagree with this one but the line "if you're racist don't come to my show" just comes off as the singer patting himself on the back for being against racism as if that's some big achievement (3 O'Clock Things). Racism is also brought up briefly in Birthday Party, which is also an interesting concept that's butchered by poor lyricism that often just comes off as again, cheezy and a bit condescending. Nobody should expect to be worshipped for treating people equally, that's kind of a baseline for being a good person. Jon's lyrics about everything, up to and including racism, is far more mature (Let's Begin).

Lyrically speaking, their best song is probably Ordinaryish People. It took the concept of not fitting in and explored it in a much more interesting way than perhaps all of their other songs. And it has the Blue Man Group so automatic win.

I think their true talent lies in their production. They never fail to mash interesting sounds up with interesting concepts in a great mix. However, this talent is lost on their poor lyricism and I'm hoping their upcoming album won't be more "cool concept, cool instrumental, shit lyrics" like it was in practically all their work. If they grew up lyrically then Jon fans would probably stop seeing them as the annoying little brother. I just want them to improve and mature with their art because it's frustrating to me to see how it could have been better.
