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Review Summary: Because switching from plagiarized rock to plagiarized pop is a great idea. Ever since One Direction took a "hiatus" (and by that I mean permanently broke up like all boy bands do after a few years), their throne has pretty much been taken by a band they somewhat mentored: 5 Seconds of Summer. They've got their fans, and they've also quite possibly acquired a bigger hate-base than One Direction, which is deservedly so due to the blatant plagiarism on many of their merchandise and in their music (Duran Duran apparently had to take legal action when it came to "Hey Everybody!"). Now that their 3-year break after "Sounds Good Feels Good" is done, can their third album "Youngblood" manage to be an album where they stop their plagiarizing ways and actually craft something original or decent? The answer is...no.
While they've moved away from their obsession of ripping off every punk or emo band that has ever existed, they have now begun to create the same generic pop that's had a firm grasp on top 40 radio for years, complete with the same bland love song lyrics of every other boy band from the last 20 years. There's barely guitar work as they've ditched it for a very strong emphasis on electronics (because of course), but even that's failing as it sounds utterly out of place with the very small guitar sample they loop throughout the entire album. The bass is STILL being drowned out (although other than that the production isn't that bad), and the album suffers from quite a lot of filler ("Lie To Me" is the most glaring example). The lyrical quality has arguably gotten worse than their previous two efforts ("I love the light in your eyes and the dark in your heart / You love our permanent chase and the bite of our bark / We know we're classic together like Egyptian gold / We love us"...what?) because the ungodly amount of talented songwriters (e.g. Alex Gaskarth, John Feldmann, Jake Sinclair) that decided that working with these guys was a good idea to begin with have jumped away from this sinking ship (Feldmann didn't even bother to handle anything here, unlike their last two albums). The vocal ability has also suffered a deadly blow, as Clifford and company now sound like Justin Timberlake suffering from a terrible sinus infection (and even though all four are supposed to sing, you can never tell them apart in any way). The entire album is just a desperate, shallow attempt to maintain the small speck of relevancy they had back around the days of their first two albums, but seeing as how the two singles have bombed on top 40 radio (in America at least), it has failed in this regard as well.
All in all, "Youngblood" is just another train wreck to add to the mountains of proof that these boys are not cut out for music whatsoever. No original ideas, nothing new to the pop formula, a steep decline in everything that was even bearable on their previous efforts (other than production)...they should just hang it up now before they become a bigger laughing stock than they already are, if that's even possible.
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Album Rating: 1.0
Album can be streamed here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2D0Hi3Jj6RFnpWDcSa0Otu
Constructive criticism appreciated. This might be amongst the worst of 2018.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
Short, concise, and clear review. Great read. The record is terrible and they make the experience more excruciating by making the darn thing as long as they possibly could. It's like artists insist on including everything they write on their albums lately. What happened to the process of sifting through their material and choosing only the best?
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Good review, will avoid
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
@Darius they were never pop punk or punk rock. they were pop rock.
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
Australia produces a hell of a lot of good bands and this is certainly not one of them. How they're so popular l will never know
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Yeah, they've never been a Pop Punk band, they were a Pop band with a slight rock influence, but now they've just gone full on Pop. I remember the Rock Press giving them a lot of coverage (particularly Rock Sound, although Kerrang! were just as guilty of this too) pushing them like they were the next big thing in Rock, but even they aren't covering this new album.
But yeah, was never a fan, so it sounds like I wouldn't like this anyway
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
Shit pop rock for 12 year old girls. At least they know their market
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
This album gets too much hate.
It is a great mix of song, made by talented musicians.
The album has:
Great melodies
Great instrumentation
Great vocals and decent lyrics.
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Actually, if you look at the songwriting credits of all their songs, the majority of them are written alongside other people. Sure, I know other bands have done this before, but 5SOS seem to barely have any song that HASN'T had at least one other person outside of the band writing it with them. This band got big through playing with One Direction before releasing an album, and they were fine tuned to be slightly edgy to appeal to the alternative kids who hate 1D, but still clean enough so that 1D fans will listen to them as well.
I haven't listened to this album since I'm not a fan of this band, but the single really didn't do it for me. All I can say is at least they've stopped trying to pass themselves off as a Rock band and at least the Rock press (i.e. Kerrang, Rock Sound etc) have stopped trying to push them as such.
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
Yeah that's definitely a relief. It was getting irritating that they were being hailed as the saviors of rock and roll when they're not a rock band and going to be gone in a few years
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Definitely, I remember Alternative Press named them as the 'Number 1 best moment of the Emo Revival' in 2014 which was cringe inducing as they aren’t even rock, yet alone emo. They seem to be vanishing now though, although it seems the rock press have shifted their attention to Palaye Royale.
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