Globally renowned Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer released their fifth studio album, 5SOS5, last month via BMG Rights Management, which is also their first independently produced record, setting the stage, and fostering hope for their next musical chapter.
The 19-track 5SOS5 is an exquisitely crafted album that pays homage to the band’s younger selves while charting their magnificent eleven-year journey. It celebrates both the band’s former selves and their grown-up, mature selves, as their music is both a step away from their old roots while exploring new horizons, yet firmly grounded in preserving their distinctive edge, which makes them unique.
“For this record, we realized if you want something done that truly represents how you feel, you’ve got to do it yourselves. We wanted that expansive sound that we naturally gravitate towards when we play together, so we had to learn how to record that. This new music is so authentically us. It’s exactly the kind of music we want to be making right now and it’s a good song to be able to reconnect to our fans after such a long time of not releasing music.
5SOS on their new album, 5SOS5
5SOS5 highlights the beautiful friendship of the quartet: Luke, Ashton, Michael, and Calum, and walks through their shared memories and experiences of love, learning, suffering, and growing up, in a wide-ranging tracklist spans from slower, warm songs, to faster-paced dance-inducing ones, experimental sounds, heavy instrumentals, beat drops, catchy chorus and lots more drums, all adorned with their charismatic, chaotic and ethereal vocals. Each song has a distinctive and elevated tone and narrative, while seamlessly synthesizing into the next, unfurling a story.
Want to know the best part of 5SOS5? Its powerful poetic lyricism, rich in symbolism, features plenty of elucidating, thought-provoking, beguiling, and poignant lyrics that express nearly every emotion on the spectrum, which are laudable. As soon as you’ll hit the play button, they will reel you in and leave you with a “Haze.” See what we did there?
5SOS5 by 5SOS is by far their greatest work to date, and it can only be a harbinger of things to come on their next album. Below, we are going to interpret some of the album’s best lyrics that we keep going back to since its release, as they are profound, humorous and resonating. Now, without further ado, let’s get into it!
“Complete Mess”- 5SOS5
- “Hang on to moments like they’ll never drift away”
Well, here’s a good life lesson for y’all. Life is full of surprises and it goes faster than you could think. You can say nothing for certain about what your future holds, where you will end up, and when it’s time to say goodbye. So, hold on to your people and make every moment count.
- “I’ve never been a saint, have I?”
She was an angel craving chaos… As some say, “In every angel, a demon hides. In every demon, an angel strides.”
- “You make me a complete mess”
Whether it’s a tousled room or a relationship, you decide!
“Flatline” – 5SOS5
- “You’re like staring at [the] sunshine, burning into my mind.”
When you find someone special in your life, they bring a warm, comforting presence into your life, like incandescent sunshine that lights you up and gives you a sense of security. You experience newfound euphoria as their positivity and love uplift you and you can’t imagine life as better without them in it.
- “Should’ve seen me like a year ago. I was someone you don’t even know”
While it is both inevitable and essential for progress, change can also be deeply distressing — especially if it feels spontaneous or born out of suffering. As people age, grow, get mature, and go through life changes, their circumstances and priorities also shift. But their love pulls you out of the deep despair and solitude and restores the hope you had previously felt you had lost.
“Bleach” – 5SOS5
- “No matter how far that I’ve run, memories always seem to catch up again.”
- “Something [is] always there in the back of my mind.”
- “I’m washin’ it out ’til I figured out. Livin’ without you.”
Here, the person wishes they could erase their recollections of a previous relationship. Reflecting on these good things makes us think it would be better if we could just get rid of these memories to move on, but that’s not the case as they cannot escape their past, and it keeps haunting them at every life’s turn.
- “Can I make up for [the] lost time?”
Longing for your person, wanting to get back together with them and urging to make up for all the time you both lost together.
- “I wanna occupy your brain. Be the only livin’ space in your head. And when you’re fillin’ up your lungs. Mine’s the only name that’s under your breath!”
For those times when you wish someone would care about and love you just as much as you do.
- “It’s so hard to watch everythin’ I want, everythin’ I want, spillin’ down the drain.”
Those moments when everything seems to slip through your grasp and you feel scared about the future.
“Haze” – 5SOS5
- “Beautiful moment in time that comes and floats away.”
Looking at a throwback picture and walking down memory lane in a time you wish would have lasted longer. So cherish all the moments in your life while they still last.
- “I watched the weeks fly by. I’m by myself and you’re not there. No matter how long, I still care”
Breakups are not always ugly and miserable because things end for various reasons, and you probably still care about the other person and miss the intimacy and bond.
- “And when you pick me up, no, I don’t have to play pretend and I am human once again.”
It’s a beautiful feeling to feel you’re yourself again and don’t have to pretend to be someone else to fit in and please people.
- “It’s a hell of a ride (lovin’ you)“
When you’re with them, you feel the thrill in your life again with no judgements.
- “Got me feelin’ alright when the feeling’s all gone. Got me feelin’ uptight every moment you’re gone.”
For when things only feel right with that person by your side.
“Bad Omens” – 5SOS5
- “Every time we say goodbye, I say hello again”
- “I died when you left that night for the thousandth time. ‘Cause you love somebody else.”
It’s a toxic relationship where both know that the relationship has run its course, yet they keep coming back to each other.
- “I kiss [on] your neck. You were staring at the ceiling.”
- “I’m still making sense of having nothing left to save”
When a relationship has run its course, we often overlook the warning signs because doing so is more convenient than accepting reality. We believe that if we don’t acknowledge the other person’s disinterest, it won’t exist and everything will be just the same.
- “Heaven knows I should let go. It’s nothing that I don’t already know.”
Although you are aware, every time you return to each other, the ending of your relationship is the same. In the end, it only hurts us because we keep going back to this person, thinking that maybe this time it’ll be different, but it never is.
- “So this is where we are. I should’ve seen it comin’.”
This is when you feel horribly lost on the way. In the end, it only hurts us because we keep going back to this person, thinking that maybe this time it’ll be different, but it never is.
“Caramel” – 5SOS5
- “It’s been a while since you and I been where we started. I don’t wanna let it fade away.”
- “Love like a landslide. I kiss you goodnight”
When the honeymoon phase of your relationship is over, and things are no longer smooth sailing, against your wish, the song chronicles the decline of a relationship with the symbolism of caramel. You’re feeling the struggles in your relationship and reflecting on how things have altered, as they cannot always stay comfortable and joyful forever. The caramel acts as something sweet—the first phase of love, before having the comedown after a ‘sugar’ rush. And now you need to balance the salty mix with sweet memories.
“Blender” – 5SOS5
- “Is it lonely where you are?”
- “I’d die for you. I tried for you”
An overwhelming feeling where we are still longing for that person. We’re stuck in a haze until something or someone comes and things become clear again.
- “Oh, my god it never ends. Now we’re stressed and depressed. And we’re going round again in an emotional blender.”
Everyone has encountered times in their lives when it seems we are merely going through the motions. It occurs when your emotions seem to go downhill and you feel trapped in that emotional spiral.
- “When you know me like you do, it’s supernatural, got me howlin’ at the moon.”
When you are so infatuated with someone, you hardly recognise yourself.
“Best Friends” – 5SOS5
- “Silver linings, golden shinin’. Perfect timing now.”
When everything is going well in your life, like your selfie enveloped in a golden glow, you are experiencing a beautiful bond with your best buddies beyond anything you have ever dreamed of. A sweet and subtle nod to the band, celebrating their foursome friendship.
- “A feeling of the past living under the summer, sun”
When you’re you’re catching up with your buddies and enjoying a bright day that brings back fond memories of good ‘ole days.
- “Take me as I am and I will take you as you are“
Accepting your person with both their perfections and imperfections and they do the same as they promise to love you unconditionally.
- “I’d love to have somebody never filter what they say”
For the shot with your always-brutally-honest bestie who wishes you well.
- “It’s not a perfect narrative. There’s beauty in mistakes.”
When you mess something up (likely in life), but somehow it turns out well and even better. While nothing is ever perfect, that’s what makes it beautiful, and what distinguishes it from other stuff.
- “I got the best friends in this place. And I love to love you, for God’s sake.”
You would give anything to get that shot with your closest friends and your confidants. This is for your loyal friends—the #squadgoals—who walk in when the rest of the world walks out and deserts you.
“Easy For You To Say” – 5SOS5
- “This nostalgia in my bones. Why can’t I forget it?”
The past is like a candle at a great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you.
- “I’m headstrong and stubborn and stuck in my ways. With every tomorrow, keep turning the page.”
Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? Keep moving as every day is a new chance.
- “I’m scared to find a piece of peace of mind”
This exemplifies the sense of feeling like an outsider in your own skin while struggling with not really knowing the purpose of your life or what lies ahead. It isn’t until we meet certain people or experience certain moments that we can break free from this and can truly start living again.
- “I’m overdramatic and drenched in my pain.”
This is quite self-explanatory for the times you’ve been wallowing.
This is a song about how hard it is to become a better person and the feelings of moving away from home. 5SOS on Spotify said that many of the songs reflect on metamorphosis, “moving forward by getting through the obstacles that have been stuck in your way for a long time.” When they wrote ‘Easy For You To Say’, they “hadn’t been home for a long while” so the Sydney lyric was important to them.
“Older” – 5SOS5
- “No tragedy at the end. No, nothing Shakespearean.”
Hoping for a happy ending. This person reminds you to be optimistic and of how good things can happen again when you’re with the right person.
- “As forever comes closer. Hope the world will spin slower. I don’t wanna get older.”
This is me every year when my birthday comes up. Actually, it reminds me of Joey Tribbiani, something we all can relate to: “Why, God, why? We had a deal! Let the others grow old, not me!”
- “I don’t wanna get older / without your head on my shoulder.”
A heart-warming romantic song about not wanting to age without having your loved one next to you.
“Me Myself & I” – 5SOS5
- “I guess, I guess I got what I wanted.”
- “Oh Lord, all these broke hearts, but mine’s the one bleeding.”
- “I did not need your help. Now it’s just me, myself, and I, I know you wish me well.”
For when you realize your desire wasn’t all that it seemed. For those times you feel lonely and left with a broken heart but feel content being “Me, Myself and I.”
“Take My Hand” (Joshua Tree Version) – 5SOS5
- “Oh, take my hand, now and forever.”
Urging to be together forever with the love of your life and capture that moment in a romantic hand-holding picture.
- “Breaking plans on a Sunday with myself maybe make some peace“
At those times, you cancel your plans to just spend some time alone with yourself, to unwind or introspect (or just sleep).
- “I feel my ego when I talk. Lost myself in the in-between.”
Talking excessively about the things you shouldn’t or didn’t mean to? When it happens, you wish you would simply stop talking and not mess it up anymore.
- “A painted heart on a sidewalk. A bleeding sun on a silver screen.”
Either a memory captured in a photo encapsulating the pure essence of your romantic scenery where you passed by with someone special.
“You Don’t Go To Parties” – 5SOS5
- “I wonder who I’m lookin’ for, ’cause you don’t go to parties anymore.”
For when you’re bored at the party, and I don’t see you there anymore where we first met.
- “I’m still here in the darkness, back where we started.”
Coming back to square one.
- “I’m caught up in distractions. Fatal attractions. I’m starting to come undone.”
You regain consciousness after going down a spiral of lethal attractions and distractions, but it might already be too late. Are you urging for that one last chance?
“Carousel” – 5SOS5
- “Tryna find the city with the brightest lights.”
You’ll caption that pic visiting a city all lit up, be it the Eiffel tower or the New York skyline at night.
- “I’m feeling like a dreamer. Don’t ya try to wake me now.”
Okay, but this is perfect for Sunday lazy mornings when you want to stay in your bed for long hours, dreaming, relaxing and now planning to wake up and get out soon.
“Red Line” – 5SOS5
- “I thought I could repair myself”
Times when you thought you could heal yourself, but slowly realize that it’s far from over as it’s an ongoing process. “It’s okay if you thought you were over it, but it hits you all over again. It’s okay to fall apart even after you thought you had it under control. You are not weak. Healing is messy. There is no timeline for healing.” ~ Tiny Buddha
- “Lonely almost cut me so deep.”
For when you understand the power of feeling lonely. I know telling other people — or even admitting to yourself — that you’re lonely can feel scary and overwhelming. Acknowledge and validate your feelings of loneliness, and take the first step of knowing how to belong to oneself.
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