"Birthday Party" is a song by American pop band AJR. It was released as a promotional single via S-Curve Records on March 12, 2019, for the band's third studio album Neotheater.[1]

"Birthday Party"
Single by AJR
from the album Neotheater
ReleasedMarch 12, 2019 (2019-03-12)
Recorded2018
GenrePop
Length3:43
LabelS-Curve
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Ryan Met
AJR singles chronology
"100 Bad Days"
(2019)
"Birthday Party"
(2019)
"Dear Winter"
(2019)
Audio
"Birthday Party" on YouTube

Background

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Following the release of lead single "100 Bad Days", AJR announced the album's name and cover art on March 10, 2019.[2] The album's tracklist was revealed in conjunction with the single release of "Birthday Party" on March 12, 2019.[3]

A sample of the song "In Heaven", written by Peter Ivers and David Lynch and performed by Laurel Near in the 1977 film Eraserhead, is featured in the bridge of the song.[4] On the show BUILD Series, Jack Met tells that "Ryan and I are at Columbia and we're studying film, and in one of our classes we saw this movie called Eraserhead [...] and then we saw this one part where this guy goes in a radiator, and then this woman starts singing to him, and as soon as she starts singing this song we looked at each other, we stopped laughing, and we were like 'Oh my god, we have to use this on the album'".[5]

In an interview on Zach Sang Show, Ryan Met explains the idea for "Birthday Party" came from "a neighbor who just had a baby, we were giving the baby bath, we were talking, and it was at the time the Brett Kavanaugh stuff was happening. The baby's mom, Sarah, was like 'Oh you don't know about any of this, the world is great to you'".[6]

Composition

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"Birthday Party" is composed in 4
4
common time
and in the key of C-sharp major, with a tempo of 84 beats per minute (bpm).

Personnel

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Credits adapted from Tidal.[7]

Charts

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Weekly chart performance for "Birthday Party"
Chart (2019) Peak
position
US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (Billboard)[8] 29
Czech Republic (Rádio – Top 100)[9] 17

References

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  1. ^ "NEW SONG 'BIRTHDAY PARTY' AND NEOTHEATER ALBUM PREORDER IS AVAILABLE NOW". Twitter. March 12, 2019. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Legaspi, Althea (March 12, 2019). "AJR Bring Exuberant '100 Bad Days' Performance to 'Kimmel'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  3. ^ LaScola, Ben (March 19, 2019). "AJR Announces 'Neotheater' Tour Dates, Album Tracklist". Red Roll. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  4. ^ Vagabond, Rick (April 27, 2020). "AJR's "Neotheather" [Review]". Rick Vagabond. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  5. ^ Met, Jack (March 26, 2019). AJR Chat About Their Latest LP, "Neotheater" (YouTube video). BUILD Series. Event occurs at 13:27. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  6. ^ Met, Ryan (April 29, 2019). AJR Breaks Down Their New Album Neotheater (YouTube video). Zach Sang Show. Event occurs at 35:43. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  7. ^ "Credits / Birthday Party / AJR". Tidal. March 12, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2023.
  8. ^ "AJR Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  9. ^ "ČNS IFPI". IFPI (in Czech). Retrieved August 14, 2023.