AJ Smith - “Old Movies”

SXSW 2023 - OEB Score: 8; Popularity Index: 5

Pairs Well With…fun., Jake Wesley Rogers, Panic! At the Disco

Melodramatic in the best of ways, AJ Smith crafts huge pop bangers that could have come out of any era past the 1970s. Epic piano ballads intermingle with funky rock songs on a string of uber-catchy singles, really picking up during the pandemic. While tenderness and vulnerability thread through Smith’s songwriting, he flips that script to sound downright joyous at his best. “We’re All Gonna Die” is the most obvious example (again, during a pandemic), a hand-clap anthem that celebrates making the most of whatever time we have left. Optimistic nihilism with swing, the togetherness in Smith’s music is obviously authentic. It’s not cynical, it’s inspiring. Honestly, it’s so easy for an artist to get lost in their own feelings when it comes to over-dramatizing and the SXSW roster is too full of that. AJ Smith is able to take hurt and introspection and turn it into something truly affirming. The Nashville-based artist pulled a stage that matches the size of his songs at SXSW, performing the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day at Lady Bird Lake before a throwback set with psych-rock pioneers The Zombies. (Kevin McStravick)