YMMV / AJR

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • "Wow, I'm Not Crazy" has been subject to two interpretations: 1) Jack has found someone just as crazy as him and is happy to know that he's not as alone as he thinks, or 2) Jack has found someone who has it or is worse than him and has realized his predicament is not as bad as he thought now that the bar has been lowered.
  • Officially, the intent behind "Burn the House Down" is as a rallying cry for listeners to stand up and take a stand against injustice. On the other hand, considering the insecure meta-nature of most of AJR's songs, it can also be read as Jack wondering if the brothers should make a song that actually makes some kind of bold statement, and whether or not challenging authority would be worth putting their careers at risk.
• Critical Dissonance: They've gotten decent reception from most mainstream publications, but many music nerds (such as Spectrum Pulse and Crash Thompson) have bashed them constantly for their juvenile lyrics, as seen by the countless negative ratings on sites such as RateYourMusic.
• Funny Moments:
  • From "Ordinaryish People":
    Your pretty friends, they call you ugly
    Your ugly friends, they call you vain
    No, you're not stupid, you're just special, special
    Well, that's what all your smart friends say.
  • From "Break My Face": "What doesn't kill you, makes you ugly."
  • The "Yes I'm A Mess" video sees Jack, inspired by people wearing costumes at Times Square, visiting the area dressed up as Elmo. He gets chased by the police.
• Growing the Beard: "The Dumb Song" and "God Is Really Real" have received more favorable ratings than the band's previous work; critics see the former toning down the band's "overproduced" style and the latter an honest song, being about the brothers' sick dad (however, opinions on its lyrics are more mixed).
• Memetic Mutation: The outro of "World's Smallest Violin" got a notice on various TikTok videos, particularly the trend when we see a character's journey through a story, watching a specific movie series or as a complication of accomplishments usually in a video game.
• Narm Charm: "Don't Throw Out My Legos" is a pretty silly song title in of itself, but the song's themes of moving out of your parents' home for the first time to fend for yourself can resonate with a lot of people.
• Signature Song: "Bang!" is by far their most successfully performing single, peaking at #11 on the Hot 100. Other well-known songs of theirs would be "I'm Ready", "Weak", "Sober Up", "Way Less Sad", and "World's Smallest Violin".
• Wangst: While there are definitely relatable themes of how Growing Up Sucks that are perfectly valid, some critics find their lyrics ruminating on such topics as rather whiny and privileged. Plenty of their songs acknowledge that their venting can often come across as complaining, but nonetheless stand by the idea that even the smaller, more trivial problems deserve to be heard.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite sampling SpongeBob SquarePants' catchphrase in one of their songs, their material is not kid-friendly. Most of their songs deal with heavy subjects and hardcore partying, and the song that sampled SpongeBob ("I'm Ready") uses the word "shit" in the chorus ("Are you ready for tonight/set this shit on fire").

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