Pop-rock sibling crew AJR are back with a song about finding the bright side of a total bummer. On their new single “100 Bad Days,” the band of brothers sing about getting dumped, drunkenly injuring oneself, underperforming as a recording artist (“I wrote a song that no one knows/I played a show and no one showed”) and other unpleasant experiences — only to find the silver lining in each one.
“100 bad days made 100 good stories/100 good stories make me interesting at parties,” they sing in the uplifting, pitch-shifted hook. (Way to keep it positive, guys!) It’s a catchy song, blending motivational pop vibes, light orchestral flourishes and more into a smooth whirl.
“As a band, and as guys in their twenties, most of our experiences end in rejection, failure, and bad days,” the band’s three members said in a joint statement. “We wanted to write a realistic look at that.”
AJR are currently doing well at pop radio with their previous single, “Burn the House Down,” which was adopted as a semi-official anthem against gun violence by the March For Our Lives. “We’re not leaders; I’m not going to lead a resistance,” Ryan Met told Rolling Stone last year. “But me as a twentysomething is trying to figure out where I fit in [and] how much of a voice do I actually have.”
The band has several European shows planned this year, along with appearances at Bonnaroo, Firefly and other festivals.