Words: Anna Marie

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Prior to releasing their third album, Aussie rockers, and one of the most underrated bands of this generation, 5 Seconds of Summer were known to the masses for two things: singing about underwear and that Rolling Stone article. Thankfully, in 2018 that all changed.

2016 and 2017 were rocky years for 5SOS. They were burnt out after their sudden rise to fame, releasing two albums in 15 months, and 2016 marked their fourth consecutive year of heavy touring schedules, coming off the back of 2015 album Sounds Good Feels Good. 2017 involved public breakups, accusations and was the first year since the band’s inception that they didn’t release any new music. Frontman Luke Hemmings has discussed how hard the year was for the band, but there were some bright spots, most notably playing Rock In Rio, one of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, to a crowd of around 150,000.

It also was the first time since they left Sydney that the guys were able to make a home for themselves, choosing Los Angeles. No doubt being consistently in one place gave the members the long-awaited opportunity to reflect on all manner of things; their success, future goals, and, of course, their sound. For the majority of artists, pop-punk is not a genre that can give you longevity. How can you sing about being a teenager who hates their hometown when you’re in your twenties and have escaped? How do you evolve in a way that is true to yourself, the other members of your band, and your fanbase, all whilst staying relevant?

Well, they figured it out. On 22 February 2018, 5SOS released comeback single Want You Back. An alt-pop new wave track, it perfectly blended the old and new versions of 5SOS together. As drummer Ashton Irwin told Beats1 “Want You Back articulates the band we were, we are now, and what we’re gonna be”.

It wasn’t just sonically that the band shifted, they also swerved aesthetically. The severity of the change was almost kpop-comeback-esque. Heavily influenced by 80s pop and 70s glam rock, the band swapped their traditional pop-punk attire for slicked-back hair, glitter, and silk shirts.

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Youngblood was a huge commercial success globally. It reached top of the Billboard album chart, beating out Beyoncé and Jay Z to do so, and making them first band (not vocal group) in history to have their first three albums debut at number one. They also became the Australian act ever to have three Billboard 200 number one albums.

Of course, we can’t discuss the greatness of Youngblood-the-album without talking about the greatness of Youngblood-the-song. Album opener, title track, and their best-selling song to date, Youngblood is the perfect amalgamation of everything 5SOS is capable of. Its foot-stomp-worthy drums and gritty guitar matched with the catchy, almost desperate, chorus make it the perfect song to see live, which is already where 5SOS shine the most. Not to mention, during a time when the charts were (and still are) dominated by hip-hop, this song sounded like almost nothing else on the radio, with the exception of maybe Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots. For a guitar-driven song to have such widespread success speaks to 5SOS’ ability to cross genres and create timeless music.

And the craziest thing of all? It was never even meant to be a single. It was originally released on 12 April 2018 as a promotion for preordering the album and then, like all great songs do, it grew a life of its own. Now, it’s been streamed on Spotify over a billion times, was their first top 10 hit in both the US and Canada and helped them win Best Rock Group at the MTV EMAs. Perhaps more importantly for the band though, it opened up a whole new level of acceptance in their home country of Australia; It was number one for eight weeks, won Song of The Year at the 2018 ARIAs, and is the 11th best-selling single of all time in the country.

The official music video is another thing that sets 5 Seconds Of Summer apart. For one, they don’t even appear in it, so gone are the assumptions that fans only stick around to see their pretty faces. The video tells the story of an elderly couple in Tokyo, who on their deathbeds, take a pill that gives them 24 hours to relive their youth. Starring Johnny Daigo Yamashita (aka Johnny Pandora) and Misaki Aono, it’s an ode to Japanese rockabilly culture, something 5SOS have spoken about their love of many times. The band clearly have an affinity for Japanese subculture; guitarist Michael Clifford’s style is heavily influenced by Japanese and Korean streetwear, they’ve collabed with One Ok Rock, and Ashton still uses the comb Johnny gave him on a daily basis.

One of the most exciting things about the album was how much 5 Seconds Of Summer opened up the community of writers and producers they worked with. The vast majority of the album’s predecessors, their self-titled debut and Sounds Good Feels Good, were written with mastermind producer and Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann, with the occasional chip-in from the likes of All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth and Good Charlotte’s Joel and Benji Madden. For Youngblood though, they switched things up a lot, working with writers and producers such as Andrew Watt (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa), Ali Tamposi (BTS, Camila Cabello, Ozzy Osbourne?!), Julia Michaels (Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and, well, Julia Michaels) and more. It didn’t stop with these pop mega-hitters though, on hip-hop influenced, spooky industrial bop Valentine they worked with Mike Elizondo, the mastermind behind a lot of late 90s/early 00s hip-hop, including Eminem, Dr. Dre, Eve, and 50 Cent.

5SOS’ desire to expand their musical horizons speaks to both their personal and professional growth. The band have always thrived when they’ve thrown themselves in the deep end, and this album is another example of that. Even at the beginning of their career, touring with One Direction was a brave move. Yes, of course, it did them many favours, but as a punk-rock band playing to a pop audience, when they’d been a band for less than a year and a half, forced them to grow up quickly, and really hone their live show and their ability to win an audience over. This is something they faced again in 2019 when they toured with The Chainsmokers. (Yes, you read that correctly, EDM duo The Chainsmokers toured with punk-rock/alt-pop band 5 Seconds of Summer.) The band have spoken many times about their desires to push themselves and widen their audience, and with Youngblood, they truly did that.

The widening of their team clearly worked, as Youngblood is their most diverse album to date (sorry CALM). Some standouts: Talk Fast, arguably their best ever song, is a refreshing update to 80s synthpop and inspired much of the albums aesthetic; fan-favourite Ghost Of You is an eerie waltz ballad, and Meet You There is a drum and bass track that probably wouldn’t sound out of place at a rave. Their track listing was smart, though. Songs like Want You Back, Moving Along and More pushed the band forward but weren’t a million miles away from their previous work, meaning that fans expecting more of that sound weren’t alienated. 

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The follow up to Youngblood was 2020’s CALM, and it’s influences are clear. Not only did Youngblood give 5SOS more opportunities to explore their sound, they also had the motivation to capitalise on their success. They really honed in on the industrial influences they had uncovered: if Youngblood is the 70s and 80s, CALM is definitely the 90s, with inspirations like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails. Furthermore, CALM is a masterpiece in vocal harmonization. Following on from the success of Youngblood, 5SOS covered Killer Queen for the biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, where they recorded in four-part harmony as Queen originally did. The skills they learnt here are clear throughout their fourth album, most obviously in opening track Red Desert.

In December 2021, it will be a decade since 5 Seconds of Summer became a band, and it is going to be so exciting to see where they go next. They’ve already teased several times that they’re in the studio working on an album, affectionately named by fans as 5sos5. The band is currently under new management, switching Modest! for YMU Group. They’re also, for the first time, unsigned (their first three albums were with Capitol Records, CALM was under Interscope, with whom they parted ways earlier this year). Their management have hinted that there are a lot of labels, unsurprisingly, interested in signing the band, but does their hesitation mean that we could get an independent album? One member has experience in that, after Ashton released his solo debut Superbloom independently last year.

One person that 5SOS have been in the studio with once again is John Feldmann, which implies that we could see the band return to their roots after all. (It also seems worthwhile to mention that pop-punk legends Blink-182 are signed to the same management). Whilst the growth in Youngblood and CALM is amazing to witness, it could be fun for them to take the skills they’ve learned and put them back into pop-punk, and what better way to celebrate their tenth birthday.

One of the most admirable things about 5SOS is indeed their relentless appetite for growth, but some of the best things about this band have been there since day one: their energy during live shows is unparalleled and their ability to carve a unique path for themselves is what has given them a decade of success by the time they’re in their mid-twenties. Youngblood is an album that transcends genre and time, and will be a cornerstone in 5SOS’s legacy.