Neotheater is AJR's third studio album, released on April 26, 2019.
Description[]
According to the band's Twitter page, the tone of this album was inspired by "Come Hang Out", a song from their previous album.[1]
Tracklist[]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Next Up Forever" | 4:17 |
| 2. | "Birthday Party" | 3:44 |
| 3. | "100 Bad Days" | 3:31 |
| 4. | "Don't Throw Out My Legos" | 4:11 |
| 5. | "Break My Face" | 3:46 |
| 6. | "Turning Out Pt. ii" | 3:43 |
| 7. | "The Entertainment's Here" | 3:07 |
| 8. | "Karma" | 4:05 |
| 9. | "Beats" | 3:19 |
| 10. | "Wow, I'm Not Crazy" | 3:17 |
| 11. | "Dear Winter" | 2:48 |
| 12. | "Finale (Can't Wait To See What You Do Next)" | 4:38 |
| Total length | 44:28 | |
Deluxe Edition[]
AJR originally planned to release a deluxe version of Neotheater, as they had done with The Click. However, this was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they decided to focus on OK Orchestra instead.
The album would have contained all songs from the original edition, as well as some brand-new songs. The band has not confirmed what any of these songs would have been, but it is very likely one of them would have been "Bang!", as the old cover for the song featured the same doll-like versions of AJR as Neotheater's cover does. Additionally, the "How we made NEOTHEATER" YouTube video also includes the making of "Bang!". It is also possible "Outside" may have been on this deluxe version.
It's unknown if the extra songs would have been placed after "Finale", making it no longer the finale, or whether they would have been placed before "Finale" instead.
Trivia[]
- This is the first studio album that does not begin with an "overture" track consisting of a mashup of every other song on the album, the second is The Maybe Man. Instead, AJR confirmed that each song contains bits of others in them, either musically or lyrically. For example, the phrase "everything is going great" from “Birthday Party” appears near the end of “Break My Face”.
- The full list of references includes:
- Next Up Forever - The melody from the bridge of "Beats" is used at 1:24. The phrase "Welcome to the Neotheater" is used at the end of "Finale (Can't Wait To See What You Do Next)" (4:11).
- Birthday Party - The phrase "and everything is going great" appears in "Break My Face" (3:02).
- 100 Bad Days - The main melody is used towards the end of "Karma" (2:40).
- Don't Throw Out My Legos - Has a sample from 100 Bad Days in the chopped up section that plays throughout the whole song
- Break My Face - The phrase "and everything is going great" used at 3:02 is a reference to "Birthday Party". Aforementioned.
- Turning Out Pt. II - The distorted notes towards the end are used in "Karma" (1:15).
- The Entertainment's Here - The "yup, yup, yup, yup" clip at 2:51 is a reference to "Wow, I'm Not Crazy".
- Karma - Karma uses the main melody of "100 Bad Days" at 2:40 and distorted notes in "Turning Out Pt. II" at 1:15. Aforementioned.
- Beats - The melody from the bridge is used in "Next Up Forever" (1:24).
- Wow, I'm Not Crazy - The "yup, yup, yup, yup" clip is used towards the end of "The Entertainment's Here" (2:51). The bridge in "Dear Winter" is used at 1:06.
- Dear Winter - The bridge is used in "Wow, I'm Not Crazy" (1:06). Aforementioned.
- Finale (Can't Wait To See What You Do Next) - The phrase "Welcome to the Neotheater" at 4:11 is from "Next Up Forever". Aforementioned.
- The full list of references includes:
- This album has the fewest official music videos made for its tracks, with only two (100 Bad Days and Dear Winter).
- This is also their only studio album to have no partially or fully animated music video for any of its tracks (Living Room has Infinity, The Click has Turning Out, OK Orchestra has My Play, The Maybe Man has Maybe Man).
- There was a scrapped song from this album called "Socks", which was later turned into "Adventure Is Out There" on their next album, OK Orchestra.