Remember the rumors about Harry Styles saying he hopes One Direction to lean towards to a more rock sound in the future? I'm guessing this was the record he had in mind.
To be honest, I have prepared myself to nitpick this record head-to-toe limb-from-limb. The moment i saw them on Channel V I knew this was going to be a band that my sister will like to death. Now that I have heard 5 Seconds Of Summer's self-titled-debut album on Spotify, what happens next isn't exactly what I had in mind.
I don't know much about this boy band or boys-in-a-band and I'm not going to look them up on Wikipedia, everything I know about them is that they're a group of Australian lads who's only intentions are to make music that are honest and sincere about them and their teenage ways. I honestly don't have any problem with that. Listening to this album kind of breaks my heart though because I had a feeling that this group is being restricted to fully rock out like they really wanted to, and I'll get into that more as we move on with this.
The first time hear She Looks So Perfect, I was hooked for this bad. I know it's not the best thing to ever come out, but it's the upbeat energy and the all out sincerity of the song that got my attention and the song is very catchy, I'm not going to lie.
I had a little trouble going into Don't Stop, but I liked it the second time around. It was the song Good Girls that started to cause some minor heartaches within me, you can tell that somewhere in the recording studio theirs a man in a suit and tie telling things to do and what not to do.
You can tell that this band wanted to follow acts like Boys Like Girls or even blink-182 which is fine, but you can tell by listening to their songs when the band is being manipulated and restricted like Kiss Me, Kiss Me as the song came from two different groups.
And yes, there are songs here that sound like songs from One Direction or even some of their own material. We can argue that because these are just new musicians and they're still learning the ropes and I can see that clearly. But the thing is, trying to manipulate their image to a specific demo-graph (female pre-teens, mostly) hurts the overall composition of this record.
But I'll say this, I liked the flow of this record. It knows when to jump hard and it knows when to sit down. When the band is being manipulated, they know how to please the corporate douche-bags. however, whenever they are let loose, they let loose.
It's very surprising though, cause I happen to appreciate this band more than my sister. Turns out I didn't hate it as much as I expected to.
Overall, this isn't something that hasn't been done before and there are certainly other acts that have done better. But nonetheless, it's a fun album if you know what you're in to. This band has definitely shown potential, and hopefully they live-up to that in the next record.
Track-by-track thoughts:
She Looks So Perfect - Interesting and catchy.
Don't Stop - Liked it better the second time
Good Girls - Corporate-manipulated song spotted
Kiss Me, Kiss Me - Whoah, a hard track? Not bad.
18 - Yeah, ain't doing it for me. Moving on..
Everything I Didn't Say - My favorite so far.
Beside You - Generic pop punk ballad
End Up Here - What a mess? But at least they're aware of it
Long Way Home - It's good and catchy, but that intro sounds like Empire State Of Mind.
Heartbreak Girl - Typical, but it ain't bad.
Lost Boy - Again, not bad, but typical.
Amnesia - Definitely a good way to end this.
Score: B
5 Seconds Of Summer self-titled-debut album out now.
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