This selection was chosen by Gen Z son.

Gen X dad says…

AJR was formed by three bothers (Adam, Jack, and Ryan) from Manhattan in 2006. Wikipedia categorizes them as indie pop as well as doo-wop, electro pop, and dubstep among others. I’m not sure there’s much if anything indie about them, but I’m probably coming from a different place than their fans.

Anyway, The Click is either AJR’s second or fourth album depending on what you consider the start of their discography. It came out in 2017 and charted in both the United States and Belgium. The album features Rivers Cuomo on one track (Sober Up) for it’s worth.

When Gen Z son first suggested reviewing this album his pitch was basically along the lines of “hey everyone thinks this is one of the worst albums ever. Let’s listen to it and see.” Fair enough. I heard ACR when he first mentioned it, as in post-punk legends A Certain Ratio, and briefly thought we’d be doing something different. Like reviewing their excellent box set from a couple of years back. So it goes.

Apparently The Click is a fairly divisive album if you are in the AJR fandom. Having listened to some other tracks by them I don’t know why this would be. There’s nothing particularly better or worse about these songs than the bits I heard from Living Room, which may or may not be their debut, or the later Neotheater and OK Orchestra.

It is hard to work up an opinion either good or bad with this group. These are all well constructed and produced pop songs that come and go without eliciting much more than a whiff of interest here and there. Some of the arrangements and instrumentation occasionally break out of the overwhelming generic nature of it all. Much of it reminded me of the ever present pop music piped into the largely empty shopping malls I once frequented in Beijing.

Maybe this is a bad album and AJR is worth disliking on some level. But it really doesn’t seem worth the effort. They’re just kind of here with their bland, inoffensive creations.

Highlights? I don’t know. The only song that got my attention really was No Grass Today, but that’s only because its chorus was so annoying. There’s also the slick, overproduced sea chanty (yes really) Bud Like You. That one really got old fast.

Gen Z son says…

Before I start, I should probably preface this review and state that I am anything but a fan of AJR. Maybe I was just being gullible, but when I first saw Anthony Fantano’s review of their album Neotheater (a NOT GOOD), I developed a strong aversion to the band and their music. It didn’t help much that I found the band members to be insufferable as well. 

I had pretty much erased them from my memory until last year, when their single “Bang!” started to rise in popularity, eventually reaching number 8 on the Hot 100. Eventually, after watching a video by YouTuber Mic The Snare, I caved in and reluctantly decided to try and give their 2017 album, The Click, a chance.

For those unaware, AJR are a trio that come from New York, consisting of brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met. They first gained traction with their song “I’m Ready” in 2015, which reached number 65 on the Hot 100 and – and you won’t believe this – bases itself around a sample of the pilot episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. It’s not very funny or interesting.

On the surface, some of the musical ideas on The Click should work. There’s hints of the indietronic sounds that bands like Glass Animals, MGMT, and Passion Pit had a hand in popularizing. There’s a feature from Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo on the 4th track. And who doesn’t love the witty lyrics of bands like The Magnetic Fields or the aforementioned Weezer? But, sadly, these ideas are not executed well.

The instrumentals and hooks are OK, but they’re hindered by a lot of extra elements added in that feel really unnecessary. For example, the trap and dubstep beats that are present in songs like Weak and Drama feel really forced, and the songs could’ve been just fine without them. The lyrics don’t come off as “clever” or “tongue in cheek”. Instead, they come off as if someone was writing lyrics for the first time and they turned out unintentionally funny. You might get a chuckle or two out of them, but that’s pretty much it.

There are some songs that I thought were good enough to be considered “highlights”, but they’ve all got their low points as well. For example, I enjoyed the instrumental on Turning Out, but I can’t say the same for the lyrics. The vocoded vocals on Call My Dad were fine, but I feel that the song could’ve had a guitar, some bass, etc. instead of just being an acapella. I was also OK with I’m Not Famous, but that’s probably because I had heard it in an animation on YouTube before.

Overall, even if there are some OK moments on The Click, The bad more than outweighs the good. I can safely say that, among the many albums I’ve listened to, this is by far not one of my favorites, and it doesn’t even fit into “so bad it’s good” territory. I gave The Click a chance, I tried finding good things about it, and now I’m going to listen to something else.