It includes a sole guest appearance from Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer while taking influence from Fun, Twenty One Pilots, Kendrick Lamar, and Kanye West.

A deluxe edition was released on September 21, 2018, supported by the single "Burn the House Down" and an acoustic version of the band's collaboration with Steve Aoki and Lil Yachty, "Pretender".

The album was a commercial success, staying on the Billboard 200 for nearly a year with support from the high charting and streaming performances of "Weak", "Sober Up", and "Burn the House Down".

[8] During the creative process of Living Room, the band also composed material for a potential second album, but chose not to release it, aiming for a different sound.

[15] From the same EP, "Turning Out" was written with the narrative of feeling the experience of growing up but without having reached adulthood,[16] and "No Grass Today" states the band's disinterest in weed and a refusal to smoke while not condemning any users of it.

There was mutual admiration between the two, which led to them collaborating to create "Sober Up", with Cuomo contributing the bridge to the song after receiving an unfinished version from AJR.

[‡ 2] For "Drama", AJR musically took inspiration from Kendrick Lamar's hip-hop style and fused it with their own sound palette, while contrasting the public's focus on celebrities like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift against political concerns for the song's writing.

[2] The band took inspiration from electronic dance music for "Three-Thirty",[22] noting in an interview with Substream Magazine that writing and production happened at the same time.

During writing, AJR tried to mimic the soundscape of American rapper Kanye West's album The College Dropout, later taking inspiration from Disney music and adding violins and trumpets to create an orchestral sound.

[12] During the production of The Click, AJR additionally wrote "Burn the House Down", "Normal", and "Pretender", which would later be included on the album's deluxe version alongside the newly written track "Role Models".

[2] "Turning Out" is a slow piano-based song,[28] mellowly describing a failed relationship,[29] followed by "No Grass Today", which advocates for tolerance and the legality of cannabis.

[15] "Three-Thirty" weighs the practice of condensing a song's meaning into a short time to meet industry standards,[30] talking about humanity's brevity with an exact length of 3:30.

[16] "Burn the House Down" was created as a response to a request from Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, seeking a theme song.

[33] AJR composed a track echoing the sentiments of the political landscape in 2017 and the rising influence of their generation,[34] later becoming an anthem for the organization March for Our Lives.

[‡ 8] AJR released the music video for "Role Models" on September 25, which showcases the band in a contemplative mood while seated in a minimalist warehouse.

[52] A video for "Turning Out" was released on October 18 with direction by Jack and Ryan Met, depicting a developing love interest between two astronauts in space.

[54] The tour was in support of and primarily featured songs from The Click,[55] including Hundred Handed, Grizfolk,[‡ 9] Ocean Park Standoff,[56] MAX,[55] and Robert DeLong as opening acts.

[59] During the November 4 show in Pittsburgh, the band announced they would donate most profits accumulated from the concert to those affected by the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.

[1] Atticus Dewey of the Communicator commended The Click for its wide range of topics and genres, finding it primarily positive while condemning the track "Three-Thirty".

[22] WQAQ additionally reviewed the album positively, comparing AJR's percussion and synthesizers to music from American musician Jon Bellion.

[28] After its release, "Netflix Trip" was criticized by fans on Twitter for its verses having similarities in composition to Bellion's song "Human" off of his 2014 mixtape The Definition.

AJR responded to this with a statement claiming that "Netflix Trip" had been written years in advance,[64] additionally explaining that it was an unintentional result of having similar music styles to Bellion and the same influences such as Kanye West.

While reviewing the former, Luke Nuttall of the Soundboard called The Click "a hideous Frankenstein's monster of an indie-pop album patching together clichés and screeching obnoxiousness by the pound".

[65] In Thomas Stremfel's review of OK Orchestra for Spectrum Culture, he compared the strong negativity online to "figuratively tap[ing] a photo of AJR frontman Jack Met to a punching bag and ha[ving] a field day".

[66] Rebutting this, Armando Padron of the Highway Herald gave The Click a score of 10/10 in a positive review, praising the spirited instrumentation and lyrical themes of growth in "Sober Up" and "Netflix Trip".