That’s right, my friends! The All-American Rejects are back with a new album again after thirteen years….and I’m SO here for it! AAR just dropped its first single, “Sandbox,” on Thursday, April 24th, 2025 from the rest of its yet-to-be released new album of the same name and a music video to accompany the song as well. It’s definitely an adventure!

In the video, we see a wildly creative depiction of the Rejects in a gory bloodbath of a battle against puppet creatures. As Tyson Ritter has stated in a video on the band’s YouTube page, the song was written as a counterargument to the widespread claim that we as a culture do not care about children anymore, and thus, the song and all its imagery of a war between kids in a sandbox, was written.

As a new mother of a one-year-old myself, I can definitely appreciate that this is a counterargument to the idea that our society doesn’t care about children anymore, because I’ve seen so much evidence for that idea in my daily life…the biggest example being, perhaps, that people in the U.S. are not legally entitled to take paid parental leave, and only one quarter of companies in the U.S. offer it. In fact, the majority of parents in the United States rely on unpaid leave from the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when raising their babies, having to take a huge financial loss in the process.

While I completely respect that parenting is not for everyone, for those of us that do prioritize the importance of parenthood (like myself), we have made some progress in America, including having more changing tables available in all restrooms, but we have failed in many other areas. A good start would be to significantly increase the number of companies offering paid parental leave, but even better would be to make paid parental leave a law not only in the U.S., but around the world.

“Sandbox” is an easy listen with a fresh sound that is rooted in the reject’s classic emo style, but, according to Ritter, is written “seeing our own humanity through the eyes of a child” as opposed to through the eyes of an angsty teen/twenty-something as in AAR’s prior albums. The lyrics are so vivid, the song plays like a movie in my head and I love it! I rate this song a 7/10. Check back for my review on the remainder of the upcoming Sandbox album upon its release! What’s your opinion of the new song? Comment and let me know!

Thanks for reading!

XOXO,

Meagan