Reviewed by Aarushi Kumar, a writer.

On September 23, 2022,  Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) released its fifth studio album, 5SOS5. Featuring 19 tracks, the album manages to maintain ties to its predecessors while pushing the band’s lyricism and instrumentation to new heights.

The main themes in 5SOS5 are those of reflection and growth: indeed, the band’s debut showcase for this album was aptly titled “The Feeling of Falling Upwards,” referencing the uncertain, almost free-falling sensation of truly confronting oneself while retaining the hope of impactful personal growth. 

Along this theme of reflection, many of the songs in 5SOS5 offer new perspectives on 5SOS’ previous projects. The album that draws the most comparison is their 2015 album, Sounds Good, Feels Good. In fact, many fans joke that “5SOS5 is like Sounds Good, Feels Good if Sounds Good, Feels Good went to therapy.” Both albums cover similar topics, such as youth and personal growth, but 5SOS5  delves into them “on the other side of twenty-four”—that is, it shows a more mature appreciation of the themes, while Sounds Good, Feels Good displays a more youthful, naïve approach to them. 

As an example, examine the album’s first non-single, “Easy For You To Say.” This track has incredible lyricism, accompanied by dynamic instrumentation that slowly ebbs and flows throughout the song, finally resolving itself in a crescendo at the end. The lyrics comprise the band members’ thoughts on joining the industry at such a young age and their reflections on  personal growth and emotional maturity. With lyrics such as “Last night, I lied, I looked you in the eyes / I’m scared to find a piece of peace of mind / I swear to you each and every time / I’ll try and change my ways,” it is particularly reminiscent of their 2015 song “Catch Fire” and its lyrics of “Now I’m lost in this swirling sea of your sorry eyes / All my life I’ve been waiting for moments to come / When I catch fire and watch over you like the sun / I will fight to fix up and get things right.” Thematically, though, “Easy For You To Say” is a much more mature reflection—the narrator takes responsibility for their previous mistakes, acknowledging the inherent obstacles that are holding them back, while continuing to strive for improvement.

This evolution can also be seen in the instrumentation of the tracks. Throughout the album, the band displays its musical mastery with extensive instrumental breaks that convey incredibly complex emotions without the use of lyrics. While “Catch Fire,” their older release, had loud, thumping, quintessentially pop-punk instrumentals emphasizing the desperation and conflicting emotions being sung about, “Easy For You To Say” has more mellow, balanced instrumentals that create melancholic, nostalgic tone. Moreover, the crescendo at the end of the song shows the band’s true mastery of its instruments—the music conveys the difficulty of personal growth even without lyrical changes. With this crescendo, 5SOS admits that the messy, conflicting desperation seen in “Catch Fire” hasn’t completely disappeared; it’s simply been dispelled in a more constructive way.

These instrumental parallels are seen throughout the album. Songs like “Bloodhound” and “HAZE” are instrumentally reminiscent of their predecessors from the album “Youngblood,” while songs like “Best Friends” and “Emotions” show nostalgia for the band’s first releases. “Best Friends” is a particularly strong reflective song about the band’s eleven-year-long friendship. It’s arguably the song that is the most deeply rooted in their original pop-punk sound: it’s energetic and exhilarating, and it makes you want to get up and dance from the very first chorus. But when you take a second and listen, the song has some of the sweetest lyrics the band has ever written: “Memories I hold to keep safe / And I love to love you, for God’s sake / I got the best friends in this place / And I’m holding on.” The instrumentals with layered chords and harmonies align perfectly to create a nostalgic, exciting, and purely happy song that begs to be performed live.

This album not only shows the growth of the band as a whole, but lets the individual members shine through as well. With “Emotions” and “You Don’t Go To Parties,” we heard the voices of Michael Clifford and Calum Hood (the band’s lead guitarist and bassist, respectively), two voices not heard much in 5SOS’ previous album, CALM. The other two members, lead singer Luke Hemmings and drummer Ashton Irwin, had solo projects and albums with When Facing The Things We Turn Away From in August 2021 and Superbloom in October  2020. The influences of these albums can be seen in songs like “Red Line,” “TEARS!” and “Older” (the last of which is a duet between Hemmings and his fiance, Sierra Deaton). 

Because 5SOS5 was the band’s first independently recorded album, the members were able to have complete control over their music. In 2020, the four took a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, and it was there that they wrote their lead singles, “Complete Mess” and “Take My Hand.” As they were in complete separation from the pressures of the industry and their fans, they were able to create what is essentially the purest version of themselves in music. 5SOS5 is entrenched in the themes that the band has sung about since the beginning—yet it also displays the group’s sonic growth through strengthened instrumentation and poetic lyricism. It pays homage to the band’s history while remaking what defines 5 Seconds of Summer.