5SOS5

5 Seconds of Summer began work on their fifth album without even realizing it. After its predecessor, 2020’s *CALM*, came out just after the pandemic shut the world’s borders, the four-piece found themselves with an empty calendar for the first time since their 2014 debut LP catapulted them to global stardom. In November 2020 they decamped to Joshua Tree in Southern California for 10 days, simply to explore new song ideas, with guitarist Michael Clifford producing the sessions at Rancho V recording studio. It was there that album opener “COMPLETE MESS”—which meditates on the worthwhile chaos of a relationship—came to fruition, the band emboldened by the absence of pressure and outside voices. Those sessions inadvertently marked the beginning of what would become *5SOS5*, an album that draws more on radio-friendly pop (“Flatline”) and the mature songwriting of Coldplay (“Bleach”) than the pop-punk with which the band first made their name. Co-produced by Clifford (a first for the band) with songwriting contributions from Michael Pollack and longtime collaborator John Feldmann, *5SOS5* finds the quartet in a reflective mood: “Take My Hand” is about embracing change and the fear that comes with it; “Me Myself & I” reflects on pushing away good things in your life because you think you can do everything yourself. The uptempo “Best Friends” celebrates friendship with a fittingly sugarcoated earworm melody, while “Older” is a tender piano-based ballad featuring a duet between vocalist Luke Hemmings and his fiancée, Sierra Deaton. Equal parts widescreen, anthemic, introverted, and atmospheric, *5SOS5* is the sound of a band feeling increasingly comfortable in their own skin.

In short, 5SOS’ fifth album is technically their best. Sure, the nineteen-track running time could afford to cut a few songs, but this doesn't detract from what is otherwise a carefully crafted album that reaps all the benefits of those ten years’…

Back in 2014 when 5 Seconds of Summer were a punky boy-band upstart opening for One Direction, the Australian quartet's name evoked a sun-soaked blast of irreverent teen giddiness -- like cranking Green Day's Dookie out of your car's speakers on the final trip to the beach with your friends before school started.

Having been quickly hailed as the “biggest new rock act in the world”, 5 Seconds of Summer have tugged on pop music's heartstrings since the start of