"Birthday Party" is a song by American

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

band

AJR is an American pop band founded by brothers Met (), collectively a trio of vocalists, , and songwriters. The brothers grew up in New York City, primarily focused on busking, singing covers and street tap dancing until shifting to songwriting ...

. It was released as a promotional single via

S-Curve Records S-Curve Records is an American record label founded in 2000 by former Mercury Records executive Steve Greenberg. It is based in New York City. In 2001 the label established a distribution and licensing agreement with EMI Records. Among the hit ...

on March 12, 2019, for the band's third studio album ''

Neotheater ''Neotheater'' is the third studio album by American pop band AJR. It was released on April 26, 2019 by the band's label AJR Productions. The album was self-produced by the trio. It is a follow-up to the trio's 2017 album '' The Click ''(2017). ...

''.

Background

Following the release of lead single "

100 Bad Days "100 Bad Days" is a song by American pop band AJR. It was released on January 29, 2019 via S-Curve Records as the lead single from the band's third studio album '' Neotheater''. Background After AJR released their second studio album, '' The ...

", AJR announced the album's name and cover art on March 10, 2019. The album's tracklist was revealed in conjunction with the single release of "Birthday Party" on March 12, 2019. A sample of the song "

In Heaven "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)" (often referred to as simply "In Heaven") is a song performed by Laurel Near, composed by Peter Ivers, with lyrics by David Lynch. The song is featured in Lynch's 1977 film '' Eraserhead'', and was subsequ ...

", written by

Peter Ivers Peter Scott Ivers (born Peter Scott Rose, September 20, 1946 – March 3, 1983) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and television personality. He served as host of the experimental music television show '' New Wave Theatre''. Despite ...

and

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...

and performed by Laurel Near in the 1977 film ''

Eraserhead ''Eraserhead'' is a 1977 American independent surrealist body horror film written, directed, produced, and edited by David Lynch. Lynch also created its score and sound design, which included pieces by a variety of other musicians. Shot in bl ...

'', is featured in the bridge of the song. 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'". 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 Brett Michael Kavanaugh (; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oct ...

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'".

Composition

"Birthday Party" is composed in common time and in the key of

C-sharp major C-sharp major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has seven sharps. Its relative minor is A-sharp minor (or enharmonically B-flat minor), its parallel minor is C-sharp min ...

, with a tempo of 84

beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...

(bpm).

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. * Adam Met – backing vocals, instruments, composer * Jack Met – main vocals, instruments, composer * Ryan Met – backing vocals, instruments, composer, producer *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey. Gehringer is known for having mastered recordings by popular artists such as AJR, Dua Lipa, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Gwen Stefani, Harry Styles, ...

–

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

* Joe Zook –

audio mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more audio channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aest ...

* Drew Allsbrook –

– composer *

– composer * Ezra Donellan – vocals * Ruth Kornblatt-Stier – cello * Chris Berry – drums * Emelia Suljic – violin *

Charts

References

{{authority control AJR songs 2019 songs 2019 singles