AJR - OK ORCHESTRA ALBUM REVIEW

[Intro: Anthony Fantano]
Hey! This new AJR album, it's "not not amazing!"

[Review: Anthony Fantano]
Often imitated but never duplicated music duo AJR are back with a fourth new album. They've blessed us with yet another, uh, pop masterpiece, Ok Orchestra.

It's 13 tracks of musical bliss spread out among 46 minutes of time, and this album is sure to satisfy your pop sweet tooth. With lush arrangements of synths, and vocals, and guita-
Really a revolutionary display of color bordering on genius, much of the time. An accomplishment that I think is displayed on the cover of this album, which, displays... a d-
One side, with instruments, and then darkness and grayness on the other side of the cover; all other music and the rest of the world that is not AJR, as all other music that I listen to in comparison to this record is now disgusting. If I hear a song from another artist that is not AJR-

Now let me explain exactly why that is. The opening track, "OK Overture" is an ambitious taste of everything that is to come. It's the act of telling you what you are going to say before you say it, artistically speaking.

-ly arranged musical arrangements and passages throughout this track, are-
It's like listening to, uh, the theater, thing, and you're dancing very... uh, elegantly from set to set. Each song or melody or theme presented on the track, being it- its own set.

It's a great moment on the album before we head into the first fully fleshed-out song here, "Bummerland," which contains relatable lyrics about how the lead singer keeps getting haircuts and now he doesn't have hair, which... *laugh* that happened to me, that's why I have no hair-
Too many haircuts and I cannot stop. Help me.

The next track, "3 O'Clock Things," on this, uh- relatable even harder:

"It's kinda funny how I paid for college when Youtube was an option," *laughs* I'm on YouTube right now!
"But then I would've had to spend my best years skipping ads and reading comments." I'm always saying this!

Also, I love how the instrumental on this track gentrifies prohibition-era jazz music, which is great! It's good, it's a good thing, for culture!

It's also really interesting how the band consistently writes from the standpoint of a young child, totally not something that gets we- that gets weirder with every passing year.

Take the song, "My Play," for example, which seems to be all about the feeling of wanting to share your feelings, or, uh, share something that you've put a lot of effort into, but that experience is framed like this:

"If you both outgrew one another, I could start now, looking for a lover, but if love dies, do I fuckin' bother? I just really, really, really, really wanna show you my play, and I don't wanna do it for Dad at Dad's new place, I worked really, really, really hard, lemme show you my play."

Which is amazing! The writing's amazing, this is great, this is cool beans, and I oop! It absolutely does not read like an overly complicated therapy exercise to get in touch with trauma that may have come as a result of your parents divorcing or something! It's not that, it doesn't feel like that!
I am a child of divorce...

Joe is also a track that's lots of fun, there are multiple parts of this song that sound just like Contra-era Vampire Weekend, but... but better! Better! Pack it up, Ezra, sorry buddy! Your time is over, old man!

"Bang!," there are passages of this track that sound like parts of Queen's "Bicycle," but again, better. Why would you listen to anything other than AJR, idiot?

Queen: Flop! Trash! AJR outsold, we stan!

If I was lying, would the quaint, quirky chipmunked vocals on the track, "The Trick" make me cry? It sounds like a Disney cartoon mouse doing a Tiny Tim impression while he's singing about smoking pot! What else sounds like that? What else is that? Nothing.

Are you still skeptical? Have you ever heard an overblown chorus of grown men singing about Humpty Dumpty as a metaphor for bottling up your feelings?

Which is so cheerily depressing it totally does not give me this anxious sense of emotional dysphoria at all! It's like eating a fucking Jell-o mold with pieces of spicy Italian sausage suspended in it, which I like! I like that, that sounds delicious to me.

"World's Smallest Violin" sounds like a They Might Be Giants song from the Lincoln era, but better, more improved, superior!

What is AJR not better than, to me? Nothing. Or everything, I-
-ords even mean at this point?
All I know is after listening to "Way Less Sad," I'm way less sad, and, *laugh* the closing, "Christmas In June"? Christmas, during a summer month? Who thinks of that? *laughing* Who thinks of that? It's June... *sobbing* Christmas in June...

[Outro: Anthony Fantano]
*cough* Incredible record. It- this AJR album, it's "not not amazing!"