EVERYONE'S A STAR!

Released just months after the debut solo albums from members Michael Clifford and Calum Hood, this sixth studio album sees 5 Seconds of Summer reflect on recurring themes of loneliness and change. It also flirts with edgy, anthemic electronics inspired by Gorillaz, N.E.R.D and The Prodigy, from the title track’s baggy throwback beat to the moody alt-pop of “Telephone Busy” and “No. 1 Obsession”. As broadcast by the shout-along refrain of lead single “NOT OK”—“Hey, I’m not OK/I like the darker side of me”—the album spends considerable time exploring downbeat lyrical concerns. “Ghost” and “Sick of Myself” are back-to-back portraits of co-dependency (with some chemical dependency in there too), while “The Rocks” drops a pointed parallel to the band’s homeland of Australia over spiky pop punk: “Don’t you get sick of it?/Living in isolation/Cut off like an island nation.” On “Boyband”, 5SOS hit back at that term’s crowd-pleasing connotations, likening themselves to monkeys dancing on command. Even the more polished balladry on EVERYONE’S A STAR! betrays an undercurrent of anxiety, as on “I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again”. That’s not to say the four band members sound at a loss for answers, though. If anything, these songs embrace the careening chaos of messy life transitions and the smirking fun of partying out of pure desperation.