There’s something to be said for a band who knows how to make a well-crafted, thought out, and carefully mapped out  album. AJR may have just made their early-career masterpiece on The Maybe Man, a record that is brimming with purpose, an ultra-personal touch, and better structurally organized than any of their previous four LPs. The Maybe Man finds the three brothers (Adam, Jack & Ryan Met) at a crossroads: they’ve just made their most commercially and critically successful record in 2021’s Ok Orchestra, the band recently announced their first arena tour, and yet the material found on this record is dripping with self-doubt. For a band that got famous with songs like “Bang!” “Weak” and the ultra-viral “World’s Smallest Violin,” the opening song/title track finds lead singer, Jack pondering vulnerably, “Wish I was a stone so I couldn’t feel / You’d yell in my face, it’d be no big deal / But I’d miss the way we make up and smile / Don’t wanna be stone, I changed my mind,” while getting into heavier material (lyrically) with “God Is Really Real” that comes to terms with their father, Gary’s, untimely passing. As close as I am to my dad, I can’t imagine going through life without my own mentor, and I commend AJR for tackling this concept head on with grace on The Maybe Man.

The process of growing up and figuring out this crazy thing called “life” comes in phases for a lot of us. First, there is the transition from being a kid to a young adult (with moderate changes in responsibilities), and then a young adult to a full-fledged adult (with major repercussions and changes all across the board). These transitions are messy, awkward, and at times too much to handle on our own. AJR come to terms with the latter transition on Neotheater semi-gracefully.

Most of the lyrical content and story-telling is thru the lens of lead vocalist, Jack Met, who is only 21. AJR is comprised of two other brothers, Adam and Ryan Met, to round out the multi-instrumentalist band that changes styles, genres, and tempos whenever they feel the need for it. Jack sums up the process of growing up on the opener “Next Up Forever” by stating, “I know I gotta grow up sometime, but I’m not fucking ready yet.” Many of us can relate to this situation of taking on newer roles and responsibilities as we age, yet Jack tends to take most of this in stride as we navigate through the LP.

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