5 Seconds Of Summer – Everyone’s A Star!

With their sixth album, 5 Seconds Of Summer are dissecting their past on a chopping board, looking at how they lived as caricature versions of themselves while dubbed as One Direction’s edgier cousins with guitars. A lot has happened since the Aussie quartet broke out by singing about American Apparel knickers, including their individual solo conquests. On Everyone’s A Star! they’ve come to revisit their past, and reclaim it differently; they’re figuring out what the idea of the boyband label they had thrust upon them looks like for them now, by working through the permanent infantilisation of the title itself, and the parasocial pressures attached to it.

The instrumental work along the way on this album is a broad scope of modern rock and pop, with a dash of funk and ‘80s-inspired synth work here and there. On the aptly-titled Boyband, their youth is explored the most. While a retro synth vibe and grooving bass carry the track, the lyrics share what it feels like to be a puppet on strings and how their mere existence still ‘irritates the metalheads’.

There’s a lot of personal introspection too. I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep is a softer alt-pop bop about yearning and learning within relationships, set to music akin to the early works of The 1975. Evolve is similarly confessional, about recognising when you need to fix up and mature after living life a little too fast, all the more magnified when caught up in the flurry of superfans, haters, and the fame machine - all wrapped around an indie-sleaze sound.

This album is where the flaws of living in both real life and the public eye come to a big heady mix. Across imperfect accounts and admissions, 5SOS are acknowledging how the pressure of performing links to a pressure to always be liked: to be young, to be attractive, to be good but not too good. So, they may piss off a metal head or two by being colourfully themselves, but they’re sure good at pop rock. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Måneskin, The 1975, Fontaines D.C.

Everyone’s A Star! is released on November 14 via Republic