Next Up Forever

After the success of the band's second studio album, The Click (2017), AJR began stressing if their career had peaked. The band took inspiration from this fear and put into their writing, preferring the feeling of anticipating something rather than having it.^[2] AJR included "Next Up Forever" as the opening track of Neotheater, contrasting from their albums Living Room, The Click, and OK Orchestra with each containing an overture as the album's first song.^[3]

The song is composed in ⁴
₄ time signature in the key of B-flat major and follows a tempo of 90 beats per minute (bpm). After the success The Click, AJR had a higher budget than their first two studio albums, so the band decided to spend more on their production. A live orchestra was in the studio, re-performing a synthesizer demo into saxophone, flute, and string instruments. AJR additionally hired Bruce Healey, a previous arranger for the Mellomen's music, to arrange the choir on "Next Up Forever".^[4] Healey used recording equipment such as a Pacific Bell telephone from the 1940s to create an authentic close harmony choir sound rather than using plug-ins to emulate the sound. The song's drums take inspiration from "Pretty Girl Rock" by Keri Hilson.^[5]

Credits adapted from Tidal.^[6]