AJR is an American indie pop band by brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met, collectively a trio of vocalists, multi-instrumentalists, and songwriters.
members: Adam Met, Jack Met, Ryan Met
formed in: Manhattan
labels: Warner Bros. Records
genres: indie pop, alternative pop, electropop
awards: Billboard Music Award for Top Rock Song
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"3 O'Clock Things" is a song by American pop band AJR from their fourth studio album OK Orchestra, appearing as the third track. It is the most popular non-single from the album, amassing over 60 million streams as of March 2026.
AJR began writing the song with the intent of creating a "stream of consciousness" song, grabbing thoughts that would be had at 3 AM and weighing if others would have an instant feeling from it. Each line is taken from different one-sided perspectives, with the song's final line "if you're fuckin' racist, then don't come to my show" tying in as one thought given as a fact rather than an uncertainty. During live performances, the line is often shouted by the audience.
On June 23, 2021, a video directed by Jack Met and Edoardo Ranaboldo was released. The music video features AJR absent of Jack, with the band's lighting designer Ezra Donellan taking his place. Donellan recreates scenes from previous AJR music videos with the other members, including "I'm Not Famous", "Dear Winter", "Sober Up", "Bang!", "My Play", "Bummerland", "Way Less Sad", "OK Overture", "Come Hang Out", and "Weak", while additionally recreating a Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance of "Way Less Sad" and an interview with Zach Sang. The music video's audio was mixed with 360 Reality Audio, which was released onto streaming services the next day.
"Inertia" is a song by American pop band AJR. It appears as the fifth track on the band's fifth studio album, The Maybe Man, released on November 10, 2023 through Mercury Records.
An acoustic recording of the song was later released as a single on May 24, 2024.
In 2022, band member Ryan Met had a bank teller friend who often stated "but you know, inertia" in response to his own discontentment with his career. The song's melody and title were interpolated from this moment, with the hook being sung by Ryan and backing vocalist Cat Capps. The remainder of the song's vocals are led by Jack Met, who lyrically lists other life examples to which the scientific concept of inertia applies. "Inertia" is primarily composed in 68 time in the key of D-flat major at a tempo of 87.5 beats (175 beats in double time) per minute (bpm), changing to E-flat major during the final chorus. The song was released on November 10, 2023 as the fifth track of The Maybe Man.
A music video for "Inertia", directed by Edoardo Ranaboldo, was released on November 29, 2023. The video features the band shrunken down and playing the song around comparably larger objects such as a piano, a book, beverages, and other common items, even a notebook with the song's lyrics written on it. This effect was achieved using a green screen to film the band and macro shots of the objects to alter their size appearance. The video received over a million views in under a month.
"Karma" is a song by American pop band AJR, appearing as the eighth track on their third studio album Neotheater. It is the second-most popular song from the album, amassing over 106 million streams as of September 2025.
"Karma" was the first song made for Neotheater, with Jack Met leading the song's writing. Following The Click (2017), Jack was frustrated that he didn't feel happiness after the band's newfound success, writing the song's chorus in early 2018. "Karma" was written from the perspective of a patient in a therapist's office, expressing an "unearned lack of good fortune" The song's outro is lyrically filled with Jack going back and forth on his own thoughts and seeking affirmation from the therapist. The song reached 10 million views on YouTube in July 2022.
The song is composed in 44 time signature in the key of F-sharp major and follows a tempo of 156 beats per minute (bpm). "Karma" instrumentally escalates as it progresses, building each verse with orchestral backings, choirs, and cowbell. The final section drops out most instrumentation in favor of Jack's crescendoing voice. This section uses several vocal takes recorded in Portland to artificially remove breathing noises, mimicking an emotional outburst. "Karma" additionally shares vocal and instrumental melodies with songs from the same album; "100 Bad Days" and "Turning Out Pt. II", respectively.
"Touchy Feely Fool" is a song by American pop band AJR, appearing as the second track on their fifth studio album The Maybe Man.
Throughout August and September 2023, AJR posted production snippets of "Touchy Feely Fool", later sending a studio-quality snippet of the song through their mailing list in October 2023. The full song became available through an event in collaboration with Rec Room on November 2, and officially released as the second track of The Maybe Man on November 10, 2023.
"Touchy Feely Fool" is composed in 44 time signature in the key of D major and follows a tempo of 163 beats per minute (bpm). The band's intention with the song was to "create atmosphere" with "vibey, synthy, and reverby" production. The song lyrically discusses wanting to get over an unsuccessful relationship.
The music video for "Touchy Feely Fool" was released on January 23, 2024. It was directed by Edoardo Ranaboldo and filmed at Browder's Birds livestock farm in Mattituck, New York, in 4:3. The video depicts Jack Met lying on a couch with a dummy dressed as a psychiatrist sitting across from him. Jack proceeds to run, but a giant hand grabs him and puts him back on the couch. Jack reattempts to flee several times, with the hand grabbing him each time. Adam and Ryan appear throughout the video playing their instruments and not interacting directly with Jack. Eventually, Jack stops running and the giant hand is revealed to come from a titan version of him who also stops trying to grab him. Both walk back to the psychiatry setup with Jack lying...
"World's Smallest Violin" is a song recorded by the American pop band AJR. It was released on March 26, 2021, as the 11th track from the band's fourth studio album OK Orchestra and as a music video.
In the first half of 2022, the song became a viral song on the social media platform TikTok, with many using the ending verse and the line "I'll blow up into smithereens" as a soundbite on the site as backing audio for fan edits or to look back on past successes.
"World's Smallest Violin" was initially planned as the album's second single with a release date in June 2020, but was later switched with "Bummerland" as the band felt the latter worked better as "the anthem of [the] summer". The song speaks about trying to minimize one's pain and comparing one's pain to another's, for example, seeing a therapist and having a grandfather that fought in World War II and a great-grandfather who was a fireman. The music features transitions between a violin, a trumpet, and a piano. The song is described as, according to The Daily Californian:
Initial reception for "World's Smallest Violin" was favorable to mixed. Music critic for Variety, A. D. Amorosi wrote that the song did not fit in well with the album's message of an emotionally deep and thought-provoking; however, Amorosi wrote that the song, removed from the album, would work well. Zachary Wittman, writer for The Globe, wrote a negative review on the OK Orchestra album itself; however, he found "World's Smallest Violin" to be "passable", saying "[it] is the second passable song on here with a nice melody and a really fun lyrical concept. Again though, they ruin it with some horrid turns of phrases. I understand the metaphor of the world's smallest violin needing to be played is the equivalent of needing to vent to...
On the same day as its release, a music video directed by Edoardo Ranaboldo was released for "World's Smallest Violin". In the video, AJR performs the song in an apartment while strange things happen around them, such as things breaking, instruments floating, and a tornado blowing papers around the room. The video ends with the room and members Adam and Ryan suddenly freezing, as member Jack looks around in confusion.
"Yes I'm a Mess" is a song by American pop band AJR. It was released on September 29, 2023, via Mercury Records as the fifth single from the band's fifth studio album The Maybe Man.
AJR began writing a concept for an "old western/hip hop" song, titling it "So What" and creating a demo on March 27, 2020. It was intended to be released on OK Orchestra, but was met with negative reactions from friends and family. The band wrote five more iterations before settling on "Yes I'm a Mess", with the lyrical idea of "throwing out your life, moving to another city, [and] just tak[ing] it from scratch".
"Yes I'm a Mess" is composed in 44 time signature in the key of D minor and primarily follows a tempo of 92 beats per minute (BPM).
A music video for "Yes I'm a Mess" was released on October 25, 2023, and was directed by Adam Met, Jack Met, Ryan Met, Austin Roa, Libby Sears, Pranav Arora, Cat Capps, Alba Avoricani, and Rob Piccione. The band claimed they spent three weeks attempting to produce a high-budget video that they found unsatisfactory, so they quickly filmed a low-budget video that they liked more. The video features Jack in Times Square dressed up as Elmo; later in the video, he ends up being chased by the NYPD due to a lack of permit.