Artist Overview: 5 Seconds of Summer

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Let's start the year talking about a very somewhat famous and popular band: 5 Seconds of Summer. I have talked about them before on my review of the concert at Nikon Theater, but having the same argument with two different friends pretty much compelled me to make a review solely on the band.

5 Seconds of Summer (or 5SOS for short), is a Pop Punk/Punk Rock band from Australia. They have been fairly successful worldwide and they are by far one of my favorite popular artists in recent memory and I am kind of sad that they don't seem to receive as much attention as other artist who honestly are way too boring like Justin Beiber, The Weekend, or god awful Drake.

I must address an important issue regarding this band before I get into their music: If 5 Seconds of Summer IS NOT a Boy Band, then there is, indeed, no "i" in "denial". It's amazing how 5SOS fans are claiming that 5SOS is not a boy band despite the fact that most of them are pre-teen girls defending a pop group filled with pretty boys that write songs obviously targeted to a pre-teen audience. One of my friends even sent me a wikipedia article defining "Boy Band" (of course, that backfired). Said article states the following points and I'll let you know if they apply to 5SOS:

1. "Is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation, singing love songs marketed towards young females" Check!
2. "Being vocal groups, most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on stage...However, exceptions do exist." They do play their own instruments, but the shoe still fits.

The other argument my friend said was that their first album was very "Pop" but their new album "Sounds Good Feels Good" was more of a break out of that "Pop" image. Since I hadn't listen to the album yet, I couldn't argue with that. Now I did, so let's talk about it.

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5 Seconds of Summer has released two full length albums and A LOT of singles. The first one simply titled "5 Seconds of Summer" (released in 2014) and the other one being "Sounds Good Feels Good" (released in 2015). Their first album is pretty good. I enjoy most of their songs, my favorite being "End Up Here" and "Good Girls" (despite this one being a complete rip-off of "What's My Age Again?" by Blink-182). My two least favorite are "Amnesia" and "She's So Perfect". I don't dislike them, they are just Ok. "Amnesia" is too boring for me and a little too "sweet" (and I mean the feeling you get when you eat way too much chocolate). "She's So Perfect" to me feels like they are trying a little too hard (either that, or they are hitting a woman's weak spot on purpose), but the message is a good one and the song is alright.

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"Sounds Good Feels Good", the "break out of the pop sound" that my friend proclaimed. WHAT A LOAD OF BULLS***!! They sound even MORE POP than they did before! Any more Pop and they would be One Direction, and good timing, cause they are both just four members now. The only song I truly like is "She's Kinda Hot" and "Hey Everybody!" but the only reason I like "Hey Everybody!" is because is way too similar to "She's Kinda Hot" and also (after listening to it several times) it is a rip-off of "Hungry Like a Wolf" by Duran Duran. I don't like this album. The songs I like (which are like 2 or 3 besides "She's Kinda Hot" or "Hey Everybody!") I can't even remember them and those two are too distracting on their similarities so I can't enjoy them properly either. The rest of the album is album filler that is begging to be the main theme of a John Green movie. To be fair, I was expecting something else due to what my friend told me, so I got pissed when my expectations were not met. "Sounds Good Feels Good" is not bad by any means, it's just "meh". It's forgettable and not very original either. Also, it's too pop from a group that can give more of a Rock edge. When listening to this album, I felt I was listening to a hardcore One Direction album instead of a 5SOS album.

The band in the overall is a great BOY BAND (get over it and face the facts, people). Once again, I really like this band and I can at least say they ARE trying to be good musicians and performers. Their concerts are phenomenal and their music is pretty good as well, with exception of 50% of "Sounds Good Feels Good". I wish I could hear more about them in mainstream media and that they got more attention than they have because they are one of the best and most fun acts of the decade so far. I would definitely recommend 5 Seconds of Summer and if they are playing in your town, go and see them if you have the chance. For the Starter Pack, I recommend pretty much their first album, but specifically:

-End Up Here

-Heartbreak Girl

-Good Girls

-She's Kinda Hot