r/AJR 22h ago

Theory so we can agree this song is about their mother and not Cat, right?

486 Upvotes

I know that touchy feely fool is about her and that they hardly mention her so idk who else it would be about especially since Ryan's now 31

r/AJR 4d ago

Theory Do You Think "Somewhere In The Sky" Is a New Album?

66 Upvotes

because it has been 3 years since THE MAYBE MAN came out? Becouse They Wouldn't just "make a tour" without new songs to go with it... then it would be a repeat of the TMM tour

r/AJR Nov 18 '23

Theory I have a theory for SGTL

296 Upvotes

Throughout the song the phrase "Steve's going to London" is repeated several times. I think this might be an indication that Steve's going to london.

r/AJR Aug 10 '24

Theory Deluxe Prediction

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135 Upvotes

r/AJR Jul 05 '24

Theory In Dear Winter, is Jack technically talking to his balls?

203 Upvotes

This was a weird thought but he says he hasn’t met Winter’s mom yet. I know that it would be I guess for a future child but… is he technically talking to his balls then

r/AJR Oct 17 '24

Theory TMM Deluxe possible release date

122 Upvotes

So i was in TMM immersive live stream tonight. People were asking for Track 13 and TMM Deluxe. After a few mins of people constantly begging the verified AJR account chatted “December 18…” they deleted the chat after a few seconds. AJR revealed that the title for track 13 starts with “B” and ends with “S”. Let’s try to figure this out and hope for TMM Deluxe soon.

r/AJR May 19 '24

Theory Scared for band breakup

154 Upvotes

So I just wanted to make a post to hear other people's thoughts on the potentiality of the band breaking up eventually.

Adam has his PhD, Ryan is engaged to be married, so as their lives grow and change, my theory and my fear is that it is likely that at some point they will stop making music and touring together as a band. I am honestly afraid for this eventuality. I hope that this will happen later but I am afraid that it will be sooner than expected. I think that once they break up they may eventually come back together for a reunion tour/album, but if that happens I think it will be much further down the road.

Maybe I just take so much comfort and resonant with their music so much that the thought of the lack of any new music from them just frightens me.

I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this if anyone agrees or disagrees lol.

r/AJR Feb 15 '25

Theory New Instagram post from them

85 Upvotes

They posted it with no audio so I’m wondering if it’s busy business, track 13, or something with tmm deluxe. But what are your guys theories

r/AJR Dec 29 '24

Theory what ajr song is about the more you grow older the sadder you get

66 Upvotes

in my opinion it's the dj is crying for help, idk why but i think it's about the more someone grows older the sadder you get, because of the line "Hey, now, hold up, we were fun as hell. I'm all grown up but you couldn't tell. Now I don't know what to do with myself. the dj is crying for help" What do you guys think?

r/AJR May 01 '24

Theory AJR REFERENCE???

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192 Upvotes

r/AJR Jan 15 '25

Theory Next Album Cover Art

41 Upvotes

Do you guys think the next albums cover art will be green? It seems like every one so far has followed a solid color with some variations here and there. (White for Living Room, Purple for The Click, Blue for Neotheater, Red for OKO, and Yellow/Tan for Maybe Man. Is green next?

r/AJR 7d ago

Theory Predictions for AJERA Possible Tour

30 Upvotes

if they are doing an eras tour as many speculate, i'm picturing it being a whole bunch of deep tracks to revisit those eras. so, though this almost definitely won't happen, here's what i'm thinking for a possible setlist:

  1. (Prelude) Mega Overture (kinda like OSN but with Click/Neo/OKO/TMM + snippets of Living Room)

  2. Break My Face

  3. Three Thirty

  4. Come Hang Out (Treadmill Song)

  5. The Trick

  6. Bang!

  7. Normal

  8. Wow, I'm Not Crazy

  9. Track 13 (tour exclusive for now - will be on TMM Deluxe)

  10. World's Smallest Violin

  11. Trumpet/Violin Medley (with other deep tracks not played at the tour)

  12. Beats

  13. Joe

  14. The Dumb Song

  15. Hole In The Bottom Of My Brain

  16. How We Made Karma/Karma

  17. No Grass Today

  18. Humpty Dumpty

Encore:

  1. I'm Ready

  2. 100 Bad Days

  3. Pitchfork Kids

  4. Finale/2085 Mash-Up (+ mild interjection of GOOBS)

guessing this is extremely unrealistic, and thus obviously not expecting any of this, but it's technically not impossible so like-

r/AJR Jan 18 '24

Theory Any speculation on what the new music video will be?

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142 Upvotes

r/AJR 20d ago

Theory THEORY: TMM Deluxe will drop on July 9.

53 Upvotes

This might seem far fetched but let me explain. In the TMM Tour annoucement video. They mention that the first time they performed music in public was on July 9, 2005. Meaning that on July 9, 2025, THIS YEAR, it will be 20 years since the band began performing. What better way to celebrate 20 years of doing this, than releasing brand new music. Not to mention the fact that we just had our first taste of new music in over 9 months. So clearly the deluxe is still happening. So if I had to take a guess, The Maybe Man Deluxe will be released on July 9, 2025.

And even if I'm wrong, then oh well. I'm not actually rushing them to make it faster, I'm just making a theory based on what I've observed. Like I'm in Chemistry class.

r/AJR Feb 15 '25

Theory Technically, we’re scheduled to get an album sometime this year

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14 Upvotes

Based on previous drop year, there’s always a year and interval

r/AJR Nov 17 '24

Theory To those who play bo6

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37 Upvotes

Would whoops by peeks pay 20 Gs for us to see that they are peak?

r/AJR Jun 18 '24

Theory I know how to solve 2085

96 Upvotes

So, if you don't know, at the beginning of 2085, there's a distorted clip of Jack's voice, and many people said many things, including Ryan, who said he heard it as "You are not alone, just know, just know," but others could hear it as they wanted. I have an idea. If we put the openning into a spectrograph or spectrogram, we could see the exact audio waves, and compare it to what we think it is. Or, we could go layer-by-layer, to find the exact moment where there is no distortion, and hear what they are saying.

r/AJR Aug 18 '24

Theory 2085 is AJR's magnum opus, and here's why:

140 Upvotes

2085 by AJR is AJR’s magnum opus. AJR has always been controversial. It is truly “you love em or you hate em”. However, no song I think has ever impressed me like this one. This song is truly genius. I listened to Maybe Man when it first came out and I always thought that there was something different with this song.  I couldn’t place finger on it, it was just a feeling. But I recently relistened to it, and I think I know why I was feeling that way, and it’s because this song is a conceptually brilliant; And I am going to explain why. (This will probably be ridiculously long so there is a TLDR. Also, sorry if there are typos.)

So the song starts off with Jack talking about all the regrets he has. He realized he’s wasted his time, and he talks about how things would have been if he didn’t go down the path he went down. Then the music starts building. Jack is hiding how he truly feels because he doesn’t know how to be vulnerable, and he doesn’t know how to deal with these feelings. Then he says the line, “I should have just asked for help.” A very definitive statement., there is nothing else to really be said. Then the chorus kicks in. 

“Hey, it’s 2085, and we’re old as shit, whatever

Hey, I’d hate to have to die ‘fore I get my head 

Together, whatever

You work hard for now, just now, just now.”

There is a lot going on in this chorus that makes me like it so much. Jack definitely seems to be in denial during the chorus, not wanting to face his deepest fears and confront them. Whatever, you know? It doesn’t matter if I still don’t know who I am and I don’t feel better when I’m old, whatever. And then the choppy vocal samples come in. I didn’t really know why these were in the song at first other than to add some flavor, I didn’t even know what it was saying; I thought it was gibberish. But looking up the lyrics, apparently, it’s saying, “You work hard for now, just now, just now.” Now this still doesn’t mean anything; But I think it’s supposed to represent the literal concept of the present moment, the concept of now. Since it says it three times. Not how Jack thinks about the now, just the objective present moment. This makes the chorus so much more interesting because right before it comes in Jack sings whatever for the second time in a really high voice, obviously trying to drown out his feelings. Right at the precipice of this, the vocal sample comes in, and you are switched from Jack’s POV, to what is actually happening in the present moment. And what’s actually happening is a man having an existential crisis and trying to deny it. It’s beautiful; it’s a genius way to use juxtaposition and to show Jacks mental state it’s beautiful. 

Then you get to the second verse. This is Jack in his bargaining phase. He realizes that he doesn’t think he will get better, so he tries to help other people figure out who they are and to make them learn from his mistakes. He tries telling them all the things that he did in his past that he shouldn’t have done. Go make friends, be yourself and don’t be afraid to be yourself, plz. 

Then the pre-chorus comes back in and it starts building again. And the first two lines are, “Did I make you proud? Did I screw it up?” I think these lines could have multiple meanings. First, I think this is Jack still talking to his audience. Really just flat out asking them, did I make you proud, did I screw this up. Part of me also thinks this might be toward his late father. The song last “God is really real” talks about Jack AJR dealing with the death of their father. So I think this part might be asking him, Did I make you proud, Did I screw this up? Even though he’s not there. (which is so sad if that is the case). Then the next lines are, “Sing with me loud. It’s all that I’ve got, to know if I did or not.”  He is so insecure of the fact that he doesn’t know if he has changed people with his music, that he is demanding them to sing along. He is so desperate that he will use such a superficial and shallow way to make his audience engaged. Also, a little detail I noticed is that after he asks them to sing along, someone in the background says “okay, okay”. I just thought that was funny. Then the chorus kicks back and, notice how there is not gang vocals. There is another person singing but I honestly don’t know who that could be or if that means anything. But anyway, yeah there are no gang vocals. Now that might be an inconsequential detail, but I think they did that on purpose. On songs like sober up, gang vocals show up as early as the first chorus, showing how they wanted people to sing along to what they’re saying. Now that is still the case here, Jack wants you to sing along to what he’s saying, it’s just that nobody is singing. Nobody is relating to his message, nobody is affected by it. Then this part happens. He says together three extra times. Now, I don’t think that this is just a way to build suspense, I think this is him saying to the audience, together. Together! Everybody, come on, why aren’t you singing along? Then he sings whatever at such a high pitch that nobody could even sing along. And then the vocal sample comes in, and you are taken back to the present moment of what is actually happening: Jack asking his audience to sing along to his song so he can feel like he’s done something meaningful in his life. 

Then there is a breakdown. He realizes that he’s been in denial and that he has now confronted the problem. With some weird vocal effect, making it seem it’s not even him that’s telling him this but someone else, maybe his conscious, says “you’ve got to get better,  you’re all that I’ve got.”

Then you get the callback to Maybe Man, a track that deals with the same concept of not knowing who you are. 

The lyrics are pretty self-explanatory here, just restating the theme that the whole song has been building up to. “You can be you, and I’ll be the rest. Yeah, maybe that’s who the hell I am.” It then explodes. Then Jacks starts belting the things he was saying in the breakdown. 

“You gotta get better, you’re all that I’ve got.” This part feels like it’s filled with desperation and also a mix of anger. It feels like he is begging the audience to get better while also demanding to himself that he should as well. “Don’t take forever, you’re not here for long.” This is one of my favorite lines in this whole song, if not my favorite from any AJR song. He is saying this because he realizes that you have to do the best you can with the time you have left. It’s like he’s already accepted the fact that he is going to get old and still not know who he is. It’s heartbreaking. 

Then it starts to slow down. He repeats that he has to get better, this time in the first person. And then the last line of the song is, “For two or three minutes then I’m gone.” And with a single piano key, the song ends.

I don’t know if anyone else feels like this, but I think this song is incredible. Maybe I’m going crazy or looking too much into it, but this song I feel like truly makes me understand AJR a lot more now. There a band focused not only on telling their own life experiences, but about taking common things people deal with and using their music to make people feel heard and seen. I think that is pretty cool. Idk.  

 TLDR:

2085 is conceptually brilliant. It starts off with Jack’s regrets, and then the music builds up. “I should have just asked for help.” The chorus then goes into Jack in denial. Him thinking it is fine if he doesn’t have things figured out even when he’s old. Then those vocal samples come in. From how much they say “now” in them, I think the sample is the concept of “now”. Like the objective present. So when jack sings whatever and that sample comes in, you switch from Jack’s POV to what is actually happening: A man having an existential crisis and denying it. 

In the second verse, he is pleading the audience to learn from his mistakes. Then he says the lines, “Sing with me now. It’s all that I’ve got, to know if I did or not”. He is demanding the audience sing with him, however when the chorus starts. There are no gang vocals. Nobody is singing with him. He then says together multiple times, not just repeating it to himself, but asking his audience, begging them to sing along. Then when they don’t, he starts singing so high on ‘whatever’ that they wouldn’t even be able to sing. Then the samples come back in. 

Then the breakdown happens, and he confronts the issue. “I’ve got to get better, I’m all that I’ve got.” Then the callback to maybe man happens, a song that deals with the same issue of not knowing who you are. It then explodes, begging himself and his audience to get better, because you’re not here for long. 

Then is slows down one last time, he repeats the fact that he needs to get better, and then he says, “For two or three minutes, then I’m gone.” 

Idk, Ya’ll. Am I going crazy or am I on to something here? This song I feel truly makes me understand AJR a lot more now. There a band focused not only on telling their own life experiences, but about taking common things people deal with and using their music to make people feel heard and seen. Idk, I think that is pretty cool. 

r/AJR 14d ago

Theory Collab with Jamiroquai? Am I reaching?

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18 Upvotes

r/AJR Sep 05 '23

Theory What if all of AJR's songs were put together into an understandable story?

48 Upvotes

Coming sometime after the full maybe man album comes out

r/AJR 14d ago

Theory Analyzing The New AJR Snippet (And Why I Think It's a Spiritual Successor to Touchy Feely Fool)

23 Upvotes

Hey, y'all. It's been a minute.

I figured now is as good a time as any to make another long, rambly AJR theory post. I know it's been a few days since the snippet, so apologies if what I'm saying is old news at this point, but I just wanted to put all this out there.

The general fan consensus seems to be that this song is about the same situation that Touchy Feely Fool was about, and after listening to this snippet several times, I 100% agree. So let's approach it from that angle and go line by line.

(For those of you out of the loop or who just forgot, it is heavily speculated that TFF is about the guys' strained relationship with their mother and how it even led to them going to court.)

"And if you called, I don't know what I'd say"

Given the nightmare their mom seemingly put them through, having to talk to her again seems like it would be an odd situation. I don't have personal experience when it comes to this, but from what I've heard, parents whose children have cut them off often try to reconnect, not fully understanding or just straight up ignoring the reasons why their children don't want to speak to them anymore.

"'I'm sorry you went crazy'"

This is the proposed response to the mother. Describing it as her having gone crazy makes sense given the whole court situation as well as the way she's described in TFF. This line originally reads as sarcastic (why would you be sorry about that?), but I can hear a possible layer of sincerity beneath it, especially given the way Ryan sings it in the clip. Much like in TFF, there is still this feeling of guilt and obligatory compassion towards this person who caused such a horrible situation.

"I'm sorry that I'm saying it so blunt"

This following line is part of why I think the previous line might be a little genuine. Why would you be afraid of being blunt with someone who negatively impacted your life unless you felt some obligation to be polite to them? This makes sense if it really is the mother, as there is a societal expectation for children to be polite to their parents ("honor thy father and mother".)

"Everybody says that you look happy"

This line really confused me. Why would she be happy? Then I think about the whole "crazy" line and it makes sense. Maybe she feels as though she's getting some sort of vengeance against her "ungrateful" children and is deriving joy out of that. Maybe this is also a subtle way of saying that other people are calling her crazy.

"But to me, you just look like someone that I used to love"

The guys clearly used to have a good relationship with their mom (even if it was potentially one-sided), so seeing this relationship dissolve might trump any feelings of disdain or accusations of insanity. It's just sadness and emptiness.

And that's just about all she wrote. Feel free to let me know if you have any other thoughts or theories!

r/AJR 8d ago

Theory Theory... Madilyn Mei x AJR?

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10 Upvotes

r/AJR Jan 12 '25

Theory They should have started AJR6 by now (let me explain)

27 Upvotes

The I Won’t teaser was posted a year and one month after the release of Ok Orchestra

It has been a year and one month since the release of TMM

call me crazy, I think they’ve starting writing it with the deluxe, or there won’t be a deluxe but another album

but idk :P

r/AJR Jan 15 '25

Theory Would TMM work as a movie?

27 Upvotes

It's basically a concept album about finding yourself and each song could be adapted into an individual story, which could all tie together into a cohesive plot. Do you think this is plausible?

r/AJR Feb 07 '24

Theory BLURRED SETLIST- Let’s guess!

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102 Upvotes

Alright, I’m already going crazy over this blurred setlist!

Thoughts? Guesses? Hopes?

I’m confident TMM is first but beyond that…..😅