While they’ve have sold squillions of pop-punk records over the last 14 years - ok, 18 million albums, which isn’t bad either - 5 Seconds of Summer have always been desperate to prove their cred after some early touring with One Direction tarred them with the boy band brush.
Although the sheer success of the Aussie band speaks for itself, it seems that finally they’ve realised they can just laugh it all off, as they do here on Boyband, in which Luke Hemmings piss-takingly singing about being an imaginary boyfriend - ‘Take my photograph and lick it with a wet tongue’ - while irritating the metalheads and being on the TV every time your put it on; the chorus goes ‘Boy band, boy band, make that monkey dance’.
There’s an appealing freedom here, sense of fun, which is echoed in the new sound they’re exploring. Everyone’s a Star! - another droll takedown of the modern need for attention - has some Fontaines-ish dynamics which suits them well.
NOT OK is the big highlight. It might be a bit Smack My Bitch Up-lite but stick it on loud and tell me it doesn’t work. ‘Where did the good boy go? Killed by desire.’ That’s the spirit.
No.1 Obsession pulls a few Muse moves and demonstrates exactly why they have shifted so many sweet units: they know how to deliver a chorus amid the guitar crunch, with Hemmings’ voice veering between slick pop falsetto and dirty wastrel growl. Sick of Myself is a bit too much of a second album Strokes to swallow, though.
Evolve is much better, a bratty rap-rock track that shows a band thoroughly enjoying themselves, aiming solidly for club dancefloors with this new punk/hip-hop thing they’re getting on, with a hedonistic edge that will be responsible for a great many wayward nights.
Just being the focus of teen girls’ dreams is no longer a concern and it seems they no longer worry about credibility, which ironically gives them a great deal of credibility. This is the kind of big stadium pop rock that everyone pretends they don’t like, while rushing to see them at festivals for a straight-up good time.
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