“Maybe Man” is the opening track on AJR’s album The Maybe Man. The song introduces the pervasive theme throughout the album of Jack not knowing who he is, or wanting to be something other than what he currently is. Each verse discusses a quality he wishes to possess, often pairing it with an object that has said quality—the unfeelingness of a stone, the joy held by one’s favorite song, the sheer novelty of being a giant—but then turns it around with a negative experience that would also be associated with said quality. The final verse laments his apparent lack of self-identity and implies that he finds his identity instead in his role as an artist performing for his fans, before the outro launches into the “pandemonium” of the rest of the album.

A snippet of the outro was first posted on November 12, 2022 to announce the start of AJR’s follow-up album to 2021’s OK ORCHESTRA. It depicted silhouettes of the Met brothers as giants, which were later revealed in the single artwork for “The DJ Is Crying For Help.” The snippet was released the day after AJR’s tease of the teaser.

The title of this track was unknown for almost a year, although when the tracklist was officially announced on September 12, 2023, it was speculated that the audio may belong to the album’s namesake track. This was confirmed on October 24, along with the song having a full animated music video, through copyright strikes on YouTubers posting videos containing the audio of the teasers. On November 2, 2023 a brand new snippet was posted, which was originally presumed as part of “Hole in the Bottom of my Brain,” until copyright strikes again revealed it to be part of “Maybe Man.”

After the album’s release, AJR revealed that this song acts as a sort of “table of contents” for the rest of the album. Each verse corresponds to one of the subsequent tracks.