After over a year and a half of no new music, AJR has released a new EP titled What No One’s Thinking,as a play on their 2016 breakout EP, What Everybody’s Thinking.
The Maybe Man was released in November of 2023, and outside of an acoustic version of one of their songs, AJR had not released any new music since then. In May, they teased a new song on their social media with a short audio clip. This video also flashed with a note saying that they were taking a break from projects that they were working on because they got hit with inspiration. The band would go on to tease this song a lot more and eventually reveal that they would be releasing a new EP with five songs. They also announced a tour that would start before the EP release.
The song “Betty” was released on July 9, 2025, along with a music video that was received very well by their fans. The song was very relatable to people, being about the uncertainty of romantic commitment.
The week before the EP’s release, the band posted snippets of every song every day. One of them even went viral. AJR eventually decided to push the EP’s release date back by a week in order to “perfect it” and to get a music video completed for the final song on the EP, “The Big Goodbye.”
The EP itself is heartfelt and emotional. The opening track, “The Plane That Never Lands,” starts off seeming like a silly song about not wanting a flight to end or a taxi to come. But it is revealed that these desires stem from avoidance, not wanting to hear the person that the narrator loves decline his proposal.
“A Dog Song” is the easiest to ridicule. A song written from the perspective of a dog seems like a stupid idea, and there are a few lyrics that are questionable. Lyrics about peeing on carpets and finding sticks. But, looking past that, this is a beautiful song about how a pet views their owners’ struggles.
Finally, “The Big Goodbye” is another big finale song with the likes of “2085” and “Finale (Can’t Wait To See What You Do Next)”. This song has an interesting story. Originally intended for “The Maybe Man”, this song was described as a happy, party song that was scrapped from the track list for that album because it did not represent how the band was feeling, and they did not want to disingenuously write a happy sounding song. This song, dubbed “Track 13” by the fans, was promised to be released in 2024, but it never did. Fans thought that AJR had given up on the song, only to have Ryan Met (the “R” in AJR) reveal in one of his special masterclasses on tour that “The Big Goodbye” is what “Track 13” had turned into. The band posted a clip of the beginning of the song on social media, and it quickly went viral, earning praise for its catchy beat.
“The Big Goodbye” is a touching song about finally achieving one’s dream of hitting it big and becoming famous, only to hesitate because it doesn’t feel how one would think it feels.
This EP continues AJR’s trend of getting more and more vulnerable with their songs and opening up about their real struggles. The band has admitted that these song ideas had come from long, intense therapy sessions which opened them up to things that they had suppressed. AJR is sure to continue making the music that they want to make and being one of the most relatable bands in the world.