{"id":166559,"date":"2025-09-24T17:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166559\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:29:08","slug":"new-album-everyones-a-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166559\/","title":{"rendered":"New Album \u2018Everyone\u2019s a Star\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis past weekend, cryptic posters popped up around the world reading \u201cYour Favorite Boy Band Is Coming Back,\u201d along with a URL: YourFavoriteBoyBand.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t immediately clear who the red and yellow flyers belonged to, but the site was soon updated to include a quiz to help confused visitors figure it out. It asked users about their preferred singing competition series as well as boy-band archetypes \u2014 the loud one, the quiet one, the funny one, the wild one \u2014 and dress codes, from skinny jeans to all-white outfits and oversize streetwear. Every combination of responses led to the same answer: \u201cYour favorite boy band is 5 Seconds of Summer<\/a>.\u201d It only took them almost 15 years, but now, the Australian pop-rock band is coming around to the label on their sixth studio album, EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR! (out Nov. 14) \u2014 just not in the way you might think.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen they broke through more than a decade ago, 5SOS were, in their own estimation, not a boy band. Back then, they were teenagers opening stadium shows for One Direction<\/a>, with wardrobes consisting almost solely of band tees and black skinny jeans. The four-piece were dead set on proving they really were a pop-punk band<\/a>. Their first two albums, 2014\u2019s 5 Seconds of Summer and 2015\u2019s Sounds Good Feels Good, reflected the growing pains of coming of age and being misunderstood. They wrote love songs and wrapped flirty teenage nonsense in perfect pop hooks, like on \u201cShe Looks So Perfect\u201d and \u201cEnd Up Here,\u201d for an audience of primarily young women who lived for it \u2014 and them. It wasn\u2019t too far off from the boy-band blueprint, except their songs were backed with live instruments they played themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe had these very clear characters, you could pick us out from a shadow or draw a caricature of us very easily,\u201d frontman Luke Hemmings says of the band\u2019s early career. \u201cI wanted some of that again. What does that look like now?\u201d In recent years, 5SOS have chronicled their deepest anxieties and formative relationships on introspective, supercharged pop-rock records. It started with Youngblood, the 2018 album where they came to the realization that pop is what they\u2019ve actually been best at all along \u2014 with the six-times-platinum single \u201cYoungblood\u201d to prove it \u2014 and continued with industrial grit on CALM in 2020, followed by the pristine and arena-ready 5SOS5 in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, the band celebrated the full scope of this evolution with the 5 Seconds of Summer Show,<\/a> an extensive 10th-anniversary tour that included sold-out stops at NYC\u2019s Madison Square Garden and the Forum in L.A. Their set featured elaborate skits, mock infomercials, and comically large, confetti-blasting condiment bottles. They revived songs they hadn\u2019t performed in years, including the ultimate boy-band-coded 5SOS single and \u201cpick me\u201d final boss \u201cHeartbreak Girl.\u201d The run reminded them of the carefree, larger-than-life versions of themselves they discovered when they first started out and had nothing to lose other than their pop-punk street cred.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR!, they explore what it would be like to feel that self-assured, exhilarated, and unrestrained all of the time. \u201cI wanted to evolve the tongue-in-cheek thing that you hear on the first record,\u201d drummer Ashton Irwin says. The song that set the album in motion, \u201cNo.1 Obsession,\u201d unlocked the \u201creckless abandon\u201d of their youth, Hemmings explains. \u201cWe wrote as teenage boys and ended up having some crazy lyrics, but with 15 years of wisdom and taste under the belt.\u201d There are no one-liners about American Apparel underwear or their therapists being kinda hot, as there were early in their career; but there are sharp interrogations of parasocial relationships, what bassist Calum Hood calls \u201cconstructs of the human condition in the digital age,\u201d and the often expendable nature of pop stardom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWithin a few hours of the \u201cYour Favorite Boy Band Is Coming Back\u201d ads going up, most were thoroughly dismantled, having been ripped down, covered up, or claimed by eager fans. 5SOS didn\u2019t intend for their marketing material to become so meta, but the irony isn\u2019t lost on them. The boy-band posters got a sort of boy-band-industry treatment. \u201cBeing in the pop world in a band, or a boy band, you attach your self-worth to how many people are looking at you, and how people feel about you as a person, as a musician,\u201d Hemmings says. \u201cYou sort of don\u2019t know who you are without whatever that is, and you can feel disposable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the other side of EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR!. In magnifying their most high-spirited traits, 5SOS also intensified the tension, unease, and anxieties that built up beneath the surface. \u201cIt\u2019s so fun to write about the weirdness of our experience, but also the Frankenstein perception of what a boy band is [and] the emasculation of it,\u201d Irwin says. \u201cCalling grown men a boy band is almost like pointing at a 30-year-old and telling them they\u2019re in high school \u2014 it kind of feels humiliating. It\u2019s nice to bark back at that concept.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t5SOS threw everything at the wall and, guitarist Michael Clifford says, thought: \u201cLet\u2019s make it look fucking ridiculous.\u201d They say they pulled inspiration from extravagant Y2K aesthetics in the visuals \u2014 gnarly frosted tips, retro punk fashion, and an overload of colors \u2014 and leaned further into irony and satire in their songwriting. \u201cBeing in this long enough, and knowing our fan base long enough, we can talk about the ups and downs of not just ourselves as humans, but the course of our career,\u201d Clifford says. \u201cThe part that I\u2019m enjoying the most about it is touching on the irony of our real-life story, sort of exaggerated heavily into this fictional world that we can kind of create with the way that it looks and sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThey sink their teeth in deep on \u201cNOT OK,\u201d the album\u2019s thunderous lead single, out today. The relentlessly pulsating tempo of the record is tailor-made for the most full-throttle parts of 5SOS\u2019 live show. \u201cInside every one of us, a shadow side\/I call it my better side\/I call it the \u2018Call me up if you wanna feel better\u2019 side,\u201d Hemmings sings with sharp distortion piercing his tone. \u201cI\u2019ll put on my suit and tie\/To emphasize\/You and I together double homicide.\u201d Irwin describes the song as an ode to their shared connection with their fans. \u201cWe can kill our depression together, and we can experience these elevated feelings together,\u201d he says. \u201cYou want people feeling free.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s similar to the connection the bandmates share when they aren\u2019t onstage. The foundation of their friendship makes it easier for them to share their darker and more vulnerable sides with one another without judgement. \u201cWhen you hit rock bottom, you need a best friend to shake off the pessimism,\u201d Irwin says. \u201cFriends that I call when I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, it\u2019s all not going the way I\u2019d hoped. I just need to go out tonight.\u2019\u201d He notes that Hood fills that role for him, a figure present in the hazy memories of nights like the one that unravels in \u201cNOT OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was picturing myself absolutely hammered on the way back home in an Uber, and I was thinking about all the dumb shit you say if you get drunk,\u201d Irwin adds. The bridge recalls \u201csome situation where I had said some stupid shit that I didn\u2019t actually mean to somebody,\u201d he says. On the record, he stammers out, \u201cI said I loved you, but I didn\u2019t really mean it, I don\u2019t think.\u201d The person he was talking to might judge him, but his friends won\u2019t. \u201cAshton\u2019s probably been my best friend for 15 years,\u201d he says. \u201cThese guys are my friends not because we\u2019re in a band, we\u2019re in a band because we\u2019re so close. It makes me want to work on those relationships more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the album-making process, they\u2019re protective of one another\u2019s emotions. Hood describes the crescendoing ballad \u201cGhost\u201d as \u201ca very personal story\u201d to Hemmings. \u201cIt\u2019s him pouring his heart out,\u201d he says. \u201cIt gives a piece of his soul to the band, and you have to be cognizant of when band members are showing their heart on their sleeve.\u201d Other decisions were more cerebral. They decided on the EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR! album cover, for example, with an iMessage poll in their group chat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s been a while since 5SOS have had to take outside perspectives into consideration. This year, the band inked a recording deal with Republic Records, their first with a major label since parting ways with Interscope in 2021. \u201cTaking a step away from that major-label system was necessary for us at the time to understand how we wanted to create,\u201d Clifford says. \u201cWe wanted to do it our way, and we wanted to not have the pressure of anybody else\u2019s opinions.\u201d Releasing 5SOS5 through the indie conglomerate BMG in 2022 \u201chelped us approach this one with a newfound confidence,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe know we\u2019re capable of creating something great on our own now, not only within the band, but all of us individually as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen 5SOS posted a TikTok of the band together in early September, pop-culture accounts like Pop Crave rushed to announce that they had \u201creunited.\u201d In the clip, the band stood awkwardly on a street in New York with the Black Eyed Peas\u2019 \u201cMy Humps\u201d set as the audio, seemingly completely oblivious to the news. They didn\u2019t know they\u2019d ever broken up. \u201cI almost [responded], \u2018Let\u2019s talk about it, let\u2019s acknowledge that misconception,\u2019\u201d Clifford says. \u201cBut I was like, \u2018Man, that\u2019s pretty funny.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe breakup speculation could have something to do with their four solo projects that arrived in the past year and a half. In 2024, Hemmings and Irwin both released their respective second studio albums, Boy<\/a> and Blood on the Drums. This year, Hood made his solo debut with Order Chaos Order<\/a> in June, and Clifford followed with Sidequest in July. The latter arrived so closely together because EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR! would soon require their full attention. It had already been in the works for around two years. \u201cWorking with the guys gives me a purpose to keep creating for reasons bigger than my ego,\u201d Hood says. It also emphasizes the roles they each excel in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t5SOS executive-produced EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR!, with Clifford stepping away from the central production role<\/a> he assumed on 5SOS5. \u201c[It] allowed me to be like, \u2018Dude, I love the part that makes a mistake,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cIf I was [leading production on that], I\u2019d be like, \u2018There\u2019s a mistake. We\u2019ve got to change it.\u2019\u201d Those are the best parts of the record: the moments that feel disjointed, or plainly put, quite bizarre. \u201cI\u2019m Scared I\u2019ll Never Sleep Again,\u201d a soaring arena-rock track that alternates between three distinct melodic patterns, precedes \u201cI Still Feel the Same,\u201d which puts Youngblood\u2019s \u201cIf Walls Could Talk\u201d on synth steroids. \u201cThe Rocks\u201d returns the band to their roots by way of power pop with the texture of a garage set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can say this now because I know the music is great, but there was a time where we were just finding the sound, where it was really intimidating,\u201d Hood says. \u201cNo one really knew what it was or where it was going, or how to incorporate the soul of the band while progressing forward.\u201d Irwin isn\u2019t too concerned about whether where they landed will immediately click. \u201cWe either celebrate that when it\u2019s received well, or at least six albums in, we know we died trying to reinvent what we are,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d rather go out that way than just go back to making stale pop-punk records.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the premise of EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR! was to lean into dramatic character traits, the music needed to match. 5SOS reunited with producer Jason Evigan, who helmed \u201cBad Omens,\u201d a standout from 5SOS5. His work with R\u00fcf\u00fcs Du Sol spoke to the band\u2019s interest in marrying their electronic influences, like the Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, with their rock influences, like Queens of the Stone Age and Muse. Hood credits Evigan with teaching them \u201cto be a little more selective\u201d in their instrumental arrangements, adding, \u201cThe bass is actually more involved melodically than it has been over the last five records, which I\u2019m stoked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band also called in hitmakers Julian Bunetta and John Ryan, once core collaborators for One Direction<\/a> and more recently Sabrina Carpenter. \u201cThose guys have seen the band since our genesis, when we were on tour with One D,\u201d Hemmings says. \u201cThey were like, \u2018You guys are really funny, we want to hear that from you.\u2019\u201d The influence 5SOS drew from N.E.R.D., No Doubt, and Gorillaz appeared rhythmically, but also helped revive that comedic edge. \u201cWe\u2019re fucking funny, and we spend most of our time making jokes and being in a bit,\u201d Hemmings adds. \u201cThese songs feel more like talking to the audience and bringing them in on the joke.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier in their career, they would keep running inside jokes going with fans on social media. These days, they aren\u2019t online much anymore. \u201cMentally and emotionally, I wanted to be closer with our fans for a longer time in terms of the back and forth online on the daily,\u201d Irwin says. \u201cBut the evolution of the conversation online over the past 15 years has been really difficult to navigate.\u2026 I think it hurts my development a little bit when I look for approval from people all the time.\u201d When they were teenagers, it was difficult enough, but it was also all they knew. Having their privacy violated, like when their home addresses and private messages would leak, was just what came with being the hot new boy band.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the start of the band, it was just part of it, and I didn\u2019t know that it wasn\u2019t normal,\u201d Hemmings says. \u201cWhen friends and family are around it, something will happen and they\u2019ll be like, \u2018What the fuck was that? Like, that was so odd.\u2019 And then you go, \u2018Oh, I guess it is.\u2019\u201d He realized he needed space from it as he got older and it started impacting his personal relationships \u2014 Hemmings and Clifford are both married with children now,<\/a> which requires the strictest of boundaries \u2014 and his self-perception. \u201cPeople romanticize and sexualize a younger version of yourself,\u201d he says, \u201cand you start to get these insecurities of \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t look like that anymore.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt can feel suffocating as adults, but they have better means of managing it now. Still, the idea of other young artists facing the same struggles and scrutiny is chilling to them. \u201cI heard about that new boy-band show and it just made me terrified,\u201d Irwin says, referring to Netflix\u2019s Building the Band. \u201cI just get the fucking shivers. It scares the shit out of me.\u201d The first episode of the competition series opens with an emotional tribute<\/a> to Liam Payne; the One Direction member served as a judge on the show prior to his death<\/a> in October 2024. At the time, 5SOS shared a statement remembering the singer they spent three years on tour with at the height of their breakthrough. \u201cThere was always a bright light in you,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe are so devastated that this world put that light out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s impossible not to get affected by it,\u201d Hemmings says of Payne\u2019s death. \u201cAll that anger and frustration, and sadness and grief, definitely plays a part in it.\u201d These emotions surfaced in a particularly distinct way on \u201cBoyband,\u201d which originated as a much darker song than the mischievous final product. \u201cIt started from this dark but funny place, like getting called a boy band and having those egotistical feelings,\u201d he adds. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone else that could put out that song. It\u2019s like, [singing] \u2018Backstreet\u2019s back, alright!\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band\u2019s understanding of what it means to go through the ringer of pop stardom is amplified not just by its own experiences, but through the front-row seat 5SOS had to One Direction\u2019s explosive trajectory during the years they spent on tour together and the waves of artists that followed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve seen so many weird music-industry experiences with these young boys and men who get into these situations, and it just leaves them in these bad deals that leave them disenfranchised when making music,\u201d Irwin says. \u201cYou\u2019d be surprised how many people in my life say, \u2018How are you OK?\u2019 It\u2019s weird when people say that because it\u2019s like there\u2019s a general knowing of how difficult it is.\u201d The answer to that question is embedded throughout the DNA of EVERYONE\u2019S A STAR!, though the drummer sums it up succinctly: \u201cWe made a childhood promise to each other to take it this far.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThey have plans to take it even further, with goals of bringing their finely tuned live shows to stadiums at some point. \u201cThere needs to be a part of you that can see it \u2014 that can see you playing those huge shows, that can see this album being a huge success,\u201d Hood says. \u201cYour mindset needs to be there. You don\u2019t really want to be surprised by it. You want to be planning for it, for sure. But there\u2019s also a part of you where it\u2019s like, \u2018Reality is not fully up to you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAll they can do is continue to show up. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to make music, and it\u2019s really easy to stop making music,\u201d Clifford says. But when it comes to 5SOS, Irwin notes, \u201cNothing ever comes easy to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past weekend, cryptic posters popped up around the world reading \u201cYour Favorite Boy Band Is Coming Back,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[22944,49,48,75,341,61828],"class_list":{"0":"post-166559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-5-seconds-of-summer","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-one-direction"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}