5 Seconds Of Summer’s ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’: Album Review

Rachel Sonis | October 23, 2015 8:33 am
When 5 Seconds of Summer first signed with Capitol Records in 2013, there was no question that these four Aussies — comprised of Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin — were chosen to drag pop-punk, for better or worse, out of oblivion and back into our midst. You knew it from the first chord of their debut single “She Looks So Perfect.” The clunky opening guitars, the rampant buzzing of teen hormones, the relentlessly catchy hey-ey-ey-eys. They were too “bad” to introduce to your mom but just cute and sensitive enough for you to at least consider the real impending possibility of falling for them.

Now back with sophomore album Sounds Good Feels Good (out today, ), the guys have matured some and are ferociously tinkering to keep the wheels of the once well-oiled pop-punk machine turning — not to mention, they’ve cherry-picked members of Good Charlotte, Sum 41, All Time Low and Goldfinger to help them strike the perfect combo of California whine and sweaty teen malaise. And it worked. While 5SOS might’ve intrigued us with their 2014 pop-heavy debut, Sounds Good Feels Good succeeds in lassoing in the band’s less-1D/more-Blink 182 fan base.

The album opens with “Money,” a song where incoherent whispers explode into wake-the-fuck-up chant “Take My Money!” The LP continues with the same urgency, as the band riots through spunky, Duran Duran-inspired “Hey Everybody!” and the super broody “Jet Black Heart.”

The group turns wistful during the dreamy “Waste The Night,” a track ready-made for long moments of dazed after-prom introspection. The band members then lament over young love lost in “Castaway” and reflect on better days during sugary acoustic number “San Francisco,” co-penned by Bonnie McKee. But single “She’s Kinda Hot” is where they bottom-line it for all of us: “We are the kings and the queens of the new broken scene. We’re alright though.”

So all hail.

Idolator Score: 3.5/5

RACHEL SONIS