Aly & AJ Have Never Stopped Making New Music Since "Potential Breakup Song"

It took too long, it took too long, but now Aly & AJ (Alyson and Amanda Michalka) are back! And it turns out they kinda never left. The sisters behind the catchy 2007 bop "Potential Breakup Song" just announced that they'll be dropping an explicit and updated version of "Potential Breakup Song" and this news has single-handedly reinvigorated us and made our inner teen so very excited. "12.29.20," their Instagram post teases, along with a snippet of the 2020 version of the song. 

TikTok gave new energy to "Potential Breakup Song" when everyone (including Gordon Ramsay and his daughter) started using the song in their videos this year. 

"It's funny, even hearing 'TikTok fame' is hilarious, because the song is quite old, and it had its day in the sun. And it's just funny that now this younger generation has no idea what the song is and who the artist is necessarily," Aly told Entertainment Weekly in November, where it was also revealed that the sisters were releasing a new single titled "Slow Dancing." Yup, Aly & AJ have new music — and probably old(er) music you haven't even listened to yet.

So, Aly & AJ never stopped making music after the release of their third (2007) studio album "Insomniac." However, they did change their band name to 78violet, dropped their Hollywood Records label and released one single titled "Hothouse" in 2013 under that name before returning back to Aly & AJ. In 2017, they released the extended play "Ten Years," and in 2020, they dropped new songs "Attack of Panic," "Joan of Arc," and "Slow Dancing," and you can listen to those in an extended play aptly titled "We Don't Stop." We're expected to get a full album in 2021.

As for why we're getting singles one by one, AJ told EW that it's their way of re-introducing fans to their new sound. If you listen to "Attack of Panic," it's very electro-heavy and darker than their previous singles. "Slow Dancing" is dreamier and feels more like indie folk pop.

AJ said, "It's been 13 years since a full album came out from us, and we ended up with more material than we ever expected. Aly and I are planning on releasing a pretty hefty record, but we plan on doing it a little differently than we have in the past, where we really introduce people to the sound before the album comes out by releasing quite a few singles. So we'll release our first single in December. And then shortly after that, we'll just continue popping off singles until spring of 2021 when we release the full album."

Aly & AJ are all grown up, so you should not only expect a new sound, but a new real-life perspective from the sisters, who told EW that they're now much more politically involved.

Aly shared, "...after [Hillary Clinton] lost, it just showed us that we obviously weren't doing enough, and we needed to hit our platforms harder. So we worked with organizations like the Sierra Club, like Vote Save America. For the two of us, we've realized that having knowledge in politics feels really good, and not having that knowledge actually feels a lot scarier. We got into it a little bit later in our life, and there's a little bit of regret in that, but I'm also like, 'You know what? It's never too late to start being active in your community or trying to actually make something change.'"

And as for getting to the bottom of who "Potential Breakup Song" is about, we actually already have the answer to that, too. Since AJ dated Joe Jonas in 2006, many thought "Potential Breakup Song" was about him, which, *record scratches* it wasn't. However, "Flattery" (another breakup song on "Insomniac") is, and Aly & AJ confirmed it via Twitter.

As for the inspiration behind "Potential Breakup Song"? “It wasn’t connected to any particular person. We were just like, ‘Let’s write a break up song. At the time, we weren’t thinking it was going to be a breakup anthem, but it kind of became that, which is really cool," the band told Insider. 

Watch out for the new "Potential Breakup Song" December 29.