The Maybe Man

***"The Maybe Man"*** is AJR’s fifth studio album, which released on November 10th, 2023, following up their 2021 album *OK Orchestra*.

## Pre-Release

The first teaser for the album was released on November 12th, 2022, with the tagline "A NEW ERA HAS BEGUN. TMM". TMM was correctly assumed by fans to be the initials of the album name. At an earlier time, they had revealed on their story that the album's title would follow the structure of "\*\*\* \*\*\*\*\* \*\*\*" (3 letters, 5 letters, 3 letters), so using these hints combined many fans began to guess as to what the album name could be. Some popular guesses were The Music Men, Ten Meter Men, The Manic Mob, and The Manly Men. In the same story post, the brothers also said that the album would contain 13 songs, because "it has to".

On August 28th, 2023, AJR posted the official album announcement on YouTube (now deleted), confirming the title to be The Maybe Man. They initially confirmed the release date as November 3rd; however, it was later pushed back another week to November 10th.

On September 8th, 2023, AJR posted a link to a website on their social media, with the caption "Maybe we release The Maybe Man tracklist... Or maybe we do this instead." The website contained a blank tracklist, as well as every word from each song on the album at the bottom in a random order. Users could drag the words into the tracklist in any order in order to guess what the tracklist would be, and then post their guesses on social media. Using the names of the already released singles, as well as some leaked song names that were seen in Ryan's files in a livestream the previous year, fans were able to guess the names of all the songs fairly quickly. Fans noticed that the tracklist on the website only contained spaces for 12 songs, when they had previously stated that the album would contain 13 songs, and AJR later confirmed that the 13th track was cut from the album due to their father's passing and would be released on a later date.

The album art, as well as the official tracklist, was revealed on September 11th. They continued to release teasers and behind-the-scenes content for the album, until it was finally released on November 10th.

## Theme

*The Maybe Man* is a reflection on the ambiguity and uncertainty that often characterizes our lives. Through its lyrics and melodies, the album explores the concept of "maybe." It depicts the idea that nothing is certain, and everything is subject to change. The songs on the album cover themes of love, loss, and the quest for meaning in an unpredictable world. In the closing track, "2085", the singer discovers his true self amidst the various people he's encountered, realizing that he will always be different around different people. This is echoed in the lyrics of the song where one line goes "Maybe I'm a stone, or big as my house" and another "Yeah maybe that's who the hell I am".

AJR has confirmed that the opening track, "Maybe Man", acts as a "table of contents" for the album. Each verse in the song corresponds to a song in the album, and the album art also contains hidden references to each verse in the song. More information about this can be found on the page for "Maybe Man".

## Tracklist

Five singles were released before the album, these being "I Won't", "The DJ Is Crying for Help", "The Dumb Song", "God Is Really Real", and "Yes I'm A Mess". Most of the other songs were teased on social media prior to the album's release, and "Touchy Feely Fool" was also played fully during an event in the game *Rec Room*.

## Trivia

* This is the second album to have 12 tracks, the first being *Neotheater*.
* This album has the most explicit songs of any AJR album, having 11 out of 12 explicit songs.
	+ "Hole in the Bottom of My Brain" is the album's only clean track. However, it does mention drug usage.
* This is the second publicly available album to not have an overture, the other being *Neotheater*.
* The only songs that were not teased prior to the album's release were "Inertia", "Turning Out Pt. iii" and "Hole in the Bottom of My Brain".
	+ A snippet of the instrumental of "Inertia" was used in the first teaser for the album, however it was never revealed that the snippet was part of "Inertia" until the album's release.
* The album's cover art was drawn by Aaron Jasinski.