At the beginning of September, the band AJR released a new EP, by the name of “What No One’s Thinking,” and that EP is probably one of the most clever pieces they have ever created.
On the surface after just one listen, you would think it is just a bit of a catchy tune with interesting background audio. The more times you listen to it, however, you start to notice the little details, until you realize that this is a collage of all their music into one song. Similar to what they did for “The Maybe Man,” but on a much larger scale.
I was first tipped off on this when I thought a bit more on the first line of the song, “I wrote a song about being weak,” which is a very obvious reference to their song “Weak” from their album “The Click.” But it was not until I noticed their reference to “The Good Part” later on in the same verse that I realized just how big this song was.
I really appreciate the thought process that goes into their music as a whole, but with this song, it goes to a whole new level. A few years ago, I went to a concert of theirs, and one of the segments was Ryan, the “R” in “AJR” talking about how they came up with the audio for their song “Way Less Sad” where they took an audio of their neighbor’s kid and made it into a whole background segment. Or in their song “Bang!” where they took the audio of a subway announcement PA system and used that for the transitions into the chorus and pre-chorus of the song.
I really appreciated the multiple layers of this song, and the different meanings that a listener can get from it, but ultimately, it is a reflection on the duality of the success they faced in the career they have.
I really could not find anything that I did not like in this song. It truly is one of their best pieces from the EP, and one of my favorites through their continuously growing list of songs.
It was earlier confirmed that this was meant to be the “Thirteenth Track” in their album “The Maybe Man,” but were unable to write it due to their mindset at the time and the need for an uplifting piece. I give this song a 5/5.