Aussie pop rockers 5 Seconds Of Summer (aka 5SOS) formed in Sydney sometime in 2011 and gained initial interest via YouTube, which culminated in the band opening for One Direction the following year on their Take Me Home Tour<\/i>. They proved their worth and ended up scoring a recording contract. Back in 2011, three of the lads, Luke Hemmings (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Michael Clifford (lead guitars), and Callum Hood (bass) began posting videos of their pop covers on Hemmings\u2019 YouTube channel. Drummer Ashton Irwin had joined to complete the four-piece group in December of that year. Following their breakthrough supporting One Direction, 5SOS went on to release their self-titled debut in 2014 and Sounds Good Feels Good<\/i> the following year. <\/p>\n
Both albums created a decent buzz, as the band toured heavily behind each record, proving that not only could they write catchy pop songs but they could play the hell out of them on stage. Those first two records showcased their penchant for mixing their punk influences with some power chords and slick vocals. For their next effort, the lads wanted to expand their horizons and explore a more electronic\/dance soundscape. To help achieve this, the band headed to California and overseen by what can only be described as a \u201cmass gathering\u201d of producers as they wrote a fresh batch of material that that would eventually be finely crafted into a thoroughly entertaining electro pop album. <\/p>\n
Youngblood<\/i> is the band\u2019s third studio album (not counting EPs) and was unleashed on June of 2018 to a largely accepting audience. The record is very slick, albeit a tad too polished, yet full of all of the swagger four Aussie guys in the twenties can muster. It was also made available in several \u201cDeluxe\u201d and \u201cExclusive\u201d editions, some that blew out to a whopping 19-tracks. For the purposes of this review, I am concentrating on the original 13-track album. <\/p>\n
Lyrically, this is a much more mature album, although most of the songs revolve around love, lost love, and new love, which makes it a bit repetitive at times (i.e., \u201cBetter Man\u201d and \u201cWhy Won\u2019t You Love Me\u201d). The opener \u201cYoungblood\u201d was written with Adam Watt and Ali Tamposi (the pair cooked up \u201cHavana\u201d with Camilla Cabello) that deals with the obsessive and impulsive nature of young relationship over a insanely catchy track complete with a killer bassline, gated drum rolls, and finger-snaps. This is all topped off with a beautifully impassioned vocal from Hemmings. <\/p>\n
Lead single \u201cWant You Back,\u201d an ode to everlasting love for an ex, is awash with Chic-like guitars and more traditional synth pop rhythm track; the layered vocals are a treat. \u201cWoke Up In Japan\u201d was a band effort that the guys wrote together in a living room. There\u2019s a definite nod to their rock influences here with a heavy riff and heavier phaser giving it the full retro treatment. \u201cIf These Walls Could Talk\u201d was inspired by the bassline in Taking Heads\u2019 \u201cPsycho Killer,\u201d and so this one also gets the retro make-over. There are some beefy guitars and all the guys provide vocals for one of the album\u2019s definite highlights. <\/p>\n
\u201cMore\u201d is another killer track full of synth-driven fire that more than makes up for the cliched lyric, as is the case with \u201cValentine,\u201d which despite its vibrancy is an ode to Valentine\u2019s Day love. Like I said before, how many songs about relationships do you want in an album? <\/p>\n
This point is pretty much my only problem with the record: musically it is a great ride, with plenty of sounds and shapes to take in, but lyrically it would have been nice to hear 5SOS expand their horizons and not just cater for their teenage female fanbase. Maybe next time\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":34127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10552],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45958","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-5-seconds-of-summer","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45958"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}