Ok Orchestra - AJR (2021)

by Maureen Brennan

AJR just released their newest album OK Orchestra, released on March 26th. The album starts with “OK Overture”, right off the bat you can hear AJR’s unique pop culture sound. The song is creative and walks you through the story that will be told in the following 12 songs. We have already been given a few drops leading up to the release of this album, including “Bang!”, “Bummerland”, and “Way Less Sad”. Thankfully the new album still holds the AJR sound that we all know and love, their song “3 O’Clock Things” holds many nostalgic triggering memories. “Joe” tells a coming-of-age tale, telling the message of learning to not finding worthiness through the thoughts of others. Both “Joe” and “Trick” tell a story starting in eighth grade, which give lessons of learning to not care what others think, and cope with memories from the past. A funny song is “Ordinaryish People” explaining how when you become known by one group for one thing you no longer get to be part of the previous group. Therefor he misses being ordinary because no one would jump to conclusions. The over all line is, “when you’re nobody than nobody minds”. The last song “Christmas In June”, bitter sweet message, it is all about being in the music industry. Meeting a partner and planning for Holidays because artists are always traveling, so the line is “just in case can we do Christmas is June”. It is all about how he is chasing the dream of blowing up and becoming famous but also the dream of being with his darling. One of the hardest lines that sums up the heart of this song, “One big day, one big show’ll make ‘em know my name, but if it ends up falling on our wedding day, Oh, God, don’t make me choose”. Overall this album is a hit, the songs are a familiar sound yet bring a new fresh meaning behind the songs. These tunes have come right in time for spring sunny days.