Hey y’all! Remember when I said this week’s issue was going to cover the brief history of the beach read? Turns out, it’s not so brief and requires a lot more research and reading than I had the time for. That’s been pushed back until next week, but today’s issue is centered around a most joyous holiday very near and dear to my heart that occurred this week. Not emancipation, but rather the 4 year anniversary of the release of 5 Seconds of Summer’s third studio album, Youngblood.
If you’ve been here long, or follow my Spotify, or have ever met me, or followed my Instagram etc etc, you’d probably be aware that I stan. The Directioner plague missed my household, the grip of the Gleeks has never once grasped me, but from the day in like, 7th grade, that my frontal lobe decided it would latch itself irrevocably to the discography of some teenage nerds from West Sydney, I’ve been locked in. I like fun pop music, I like good rock music, I like catchy hooks and live bass and basically all of the core elements this band has been able to blend into one cohesive sonic unit over the last decade. If you wanna lip sync into your mirror or sing in the shower or lose your voice in a crowd or shout with the windows down through the suburbs of Indiana with your friends, there’s gotta be something in there for you like there is for me.
For those less familiar with the storied history of the world’s least boy band boy band, picture this with me: Your first album, capped by global hit singles and a tour with One Direction, burst onto the scene in a cacophony of pop punk and hair quiffs. You haven’t even finished high school, but you’re whisked off to London for an intensive period of recording that ends up bearing the project, and are thrown right back into the studio after said tour, expected to do it all again. In a wide eyed jumble of collaborators and confusion, you cough up a soft-rock posturing of ballads and love songs, which undeniably flops commercially. Fans love the deep cuts, but the label is losing confidence and the mainstream is starting to move on. You literally have a Hills mansion or two, a few gold records and a dream. So you go back to the drawing board with a supreme amount of confidence and nothing to lose.
I’ve heard the band talk about this album and the title track countless times, since it’s now a cornerstone of some of their most recognizable successes and global acclaim. It hit number one over The Carters, for crying out loud. The process as told to us was messy, sprawling, maximalist and an overall grab at something bigger than 5SOS had ever even attempted to crack before: full pop. If it was one thing they were going to shy away from for years, it was mainstream pop music. The obvious passion for live instruments and complex composition that these kids had was undeniable, as was their influence from their idols such as All Time Low and Good Charlotte. They wanted to be them, not One Direction, and said as much quite often. However, something changed in the process of creating Youngblood in which 5SOS was emboldened to believe in their capability to craft a record in which live instruments MAKE the pop songs, not negate them. I’d like to think that this was induced by songwriting sessions in Sweden and loosening the grip John Feldman had/s on them, but we may never know.
Anyway, thus a star was born: as soon as it broke out of Australian radio, the title track reintroduced the band to the world in a mature, thrumming, dark tribute to the sleek direction the band was taking. Gone were the “hey-ey-ey-ey” refrains and cheap filler tracks about hookups, and here was a lengthy tracklist of heavy hitters admitting to sleaziness, dishonesty, nostalgia and genuine heartbreak over what was lost. A new pop formula and razor sharp production cleaned up all the rough edges of the commercialized version of punk that had been previously ascribed to the band; this was the music of men.
In a way that I distinctly appreciate about this band, they accomplished this with an astounding amount of range. Tracks like “Better Man” and “Moving Along” wouldn’t have been possible without their predecessors; latter songs off of their next album, CALM, like “Thin White Lies” and “No Shame” wouldn’t have been possible without the ground Youngblood laid for them. “Not In The Same Way” would simply cease to enter our plane of existence without “Woke Up In Japan” to be honest! For each bit of dark, there’s light, and this balance and depth was something the band hadn’t had the chance to flaunt before. The nuance of this chapter in the story of their discography stands out to me in that it isn’t one note, nor is it explicitly shown to you as a glaring rebrand. It was (and is) just good, bright, punchy and hot.
For what it’s worth, which is a good amount evidently, this album helped 5SOS break out of a really narrow pigeonhole and paved the way for a new era for themselves and dare I say a large recent wave of rock influence in mainstream pop music today. What Lorde is to alt girlies, 5SOS is to…idk me and anyone still listening to pop rock. Now these dudes are free to make prog rock in the desert and sell out stadiums and get married and establish themselves with optimism and space to move and change.
Beyond introducing a new page for a largely successful band, this album is one of very few that have literally grown up with me. I literally don’t think there’s been a month of my life since this release that I have not sung along to one of these songs. The most tragic 90 second jazz solo to ever grace my high school dance team’s marley floors at the end of my freshman year for my audition for a company that changed my life was set to “If Walls Could Talk”. I know this album front and back, and it hasn’t gotten old once. The personal connection I bear to this project makes it that much more special to me, and I think it’ll continue to do so for another 4 years at least. To me, that’s an impressive evolution, and I’ll be sticking around to see how the rest of it goes. Go stream Youngblood (deluxe, of course) (and the live tour album Meet You There, of course) and I’ll check back in on my mental state after I’ve seen them live 3 times in about a month. Love you, and see you next week! Stay cool in this heat wave, btw.