Review Summary: Silly pop rock fun brought down by annoying vocals and sometimes bad lyricism.
With appearances not like those of *NSYNC and One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer have been a very controversial name in the music scene since their rise to somewhat boy band-like stardom in 2014 with their debut album (and no, contrary to the beliefs of 9-16 year olds, its not pop punk at all, although it does pass for at least pop rock in my book). It could go four ways with these guys: you're either a die-hard fan, simply enjoy their music, don't care about them or think they're the worst thing to grace the music industry as we know it since acts like Double Take or Rebecca Black. The truth is that a lot of people view them as the new Blood on the Dance Floor or Brokencyde simply due to their association with One Direction (they opened for them during their Take Me Home Tour) and their fanbase (which has made some pretty ridiculous statements such as "they brought guitars back to the radio!", but cut them some slack as they're young), and while they may be mediocre at best and absolutely sucky at worst, they definitely are NOT the new Blood on the Dance Floor until a member is proved to be a pedophile, murderer or something of the sort. The EP comes from their debut single "She Looks So Perfect" (which ended up appearing on their debut album as well) and features some ridiculous songwriting and some annoying vocals.
Onto the EP itself. While "She Looks So Perfect" has somewhat decent singing in some parts, catchiness and some OK guitar work, it suffers through laughable lyricism ("She looks so perfect standing there, in her American Apparel underwear"), the fact that I can't tell whether its Luke Hemmings or Michael Clifford singing as they both sound incredibly similar to each other and overproduction on the part of John Feldmann (who has done some good stuff in the past such as Atreyu's Lead Sails Paper Anchor and The Used's In Love and Death). "Heartache on the Big Screen" starts out with an OK verse from Luke Hemmings, but the song starts to get annoying when Calum's vocals kick in. This is the main problem with this song; Calum's vocals can get quite annoying. The lyricism is miles better than "She Looks So Perfect", but that isn't saying much. Overproduction also is not as much of a problem here. "The Only Reason" is definitely the highlight of this EP and shows that the band can produce some tracks not marred by overproduction or flat out silly lyricism, although it does get cheesy ("Don't talk, let me think it over / How we gonna fix this? / How we gonna undo all the pain?"). "Disconnected" is the last track of the EP (omitting a cover of the Ramones' "What I Like About You", but its a boy band covering The Ramones, and that's all that needs to be said about that). The track is the one that is most remniscient of One Direction, complete with 1D-like songwriting, but with a small touch of emo ("I like the summer rain / I like the sounds you make / we put the world away / we get so disconnected").
With this EP, 5 Seconds of Summer comes off as basically a pop rock/somewhat emo version of One Direction, with hints of potential talent from Michael and Luke. However, silly lyricism and the sheer annoyance of Calum's vocals make this an EP that's really only worth checking out if your a fan, or if you want ridiculous, immature pop rock fun. They don't bring anything new to the table, and they certainly did not bring guitars back to the radio. They're also, for the most part, lyrically clean and family friendly, which won't help if you're looking for more lyrically explicit jams from the likes of other bands out there such as Bring Me the Horizon and Fall Out Boy.
Pros:
-OK guitar work
-The Only Reason
Cons:
-Silly, immature songwriting
-Calum's vocals are abysmal
-Afraid to tackle themes other than love
-No innovation
-Boy band covering The Ramones
Highlights: The Only Reason
