The Daily Spin, April 19
AJR | OK ORCHESTRA
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: OK ORCHESTRA (2021)
Artist: AJR
Link:
A band comprised of three brothers (sorry, Mom, these guys did it first), AJR rose to prominence with clever sampling, catchy hooks, and the sort of easily replayable music that permeates [your choice of clothing retailer] with regularity.
Nearly a decade into their musical careers, they’ve carved a niche out in a very Jon Bellion-esque sense, inverting typical electronic music structure by relying far more heavily on actual instrumentation to echo electronic styling.
That’s not to say that it’s all acoustic - there’s clearly supporting synth work here, and a lot of the vocals are tuned into another dimension, but it’s a remarkable innovation to pivot drops into bombastic brass, swinging proud into the distance. It doesn’t always totally click, but when it all comes together, it’s a phenomenal twist on a sound that could otherwise get so tired, so fast.
OK ORCHESTRA nails the sampling work and the vocals in a way that their previous work hasn’t quite kicked - though I feel The Click’s lyrics were a little cleaner in terms of the overall theming, as this album’s almost a bit too thick with metaphor.
Rating: 7.8/10
Best Tracks: 3 O’Clock Things; The Trick; OK Overture
Worst Tracks: Christmas In June