5 Seconds of Summer - Sounds Good Feels Good (Album Review)

I think, at some point, you have to admit 5 Seconds Of Summer is the biggest new "pop/punk" band. I put that term in quotes for a multitude of reasons. Mostly because the large bulk of underground pop/punk fans may not consider them a real pop/punk band but more of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Meaning they are really just a major label boy band stealing elements from what bands like Blink-182, Green Day, and New Found Glory made so popular. That might be true. Take one look at their sophomore album's cover art for Sounds Good Feels Good and you can see elements that look like they were lifted from the aesthetic of New Found Glory (the logo) as well as aesthetic-like images that look lifted straight from Green Day during their American Idiot era. Still in my mind they are recording music that sounds pop/punk, they have co-written with a lot of artists from the established pop/punk world, and both of their albums have been produced by John Feldmann. They seem to be heavily aligning themselves with artists from the genre all the while selling hundreds of thousands of copies of their debut album. I enjoyed a lot of things about their debut album. I considered it pop/punk ultra light. So I went into this new album, Sounds Good Feels Good, expecting to like a lot of it and wondering if the band could deliver another solid album in the relatively quick turn around (their debut was released just last year).

On first listen you can tell 5SOS are basically giving you more of the sound from their debut with maybe some experimentation in just a few spots. Sounds Good Feels Good still borders on the pop/punk ultra light. Despite some mohawks, safety pins, x's over fox eyes, and the group looking eerily similar to the likes of Good Charlotte, Sum 41, Blink, All Time Low, etc... on the cover you are getting a sleek made for radio pop/punk/rock album. You know what though, that's fine. There are a lot of people who would argue that the bands I mentioned wrote music of similar appeal. This time around there are a few heavier moments. "She's Kinda Hot" boasts a heavier rock sound than many songs did on the debut and the drums on "Airplanes" sound pretty thundering at times. "She's Kinda Hot" being a more rock song instrumentally sounds good and while the way the lyrics are sung does make them catchy that doesn't make them all that great. At times they are pretty cringe worthy and some of the sound bites added under the vocals don't do the song any favors. Like I said, though, it's a catchy song and a pretty good first single for the album. The intro to the more acoustic "San Francisco" sounds like a lost Blink-182 riff from their Takeoff Your Pants and Jacket era. While "Jet Black Heart" leans more toward the slightly darker alternative pop/rock side of the band's sound. It's one of the better songs on the album and it's actually a considerably interesting moment for the band to show some maturity. "Money", co-written by the Madden brothers, sounds like a lost Good Charlotte song from the The Young And The Hopeless era. The GC influence on the song is strong and it's hard not to feel like you're being teleported back to 2002 and that's not a negative. The song is super catchy and pretty much captures that really radio friendly pop/punk sound perfectly. I think it's a great kick-off to the album.

The album once again has a ton of co-writers from pop/punk artists like John Feldmann of Goldfinger (who also produced the album), Benji & Joel from Good Charlotte, and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. Also odd enough members of Duran Duran and Evanescence show up in the credits. Even with all the co-writers the band brings together a pretty cohesive sound that, to me, resembles the band All Time Low pretty closely. Think a light version of All Time Low's new John Feldmann produced album Future Hearts and you've basically got the sound of this album. All of these co-writers really bring elements to their sound and those elements are ones I think 5SOS are not only influenced by but want to bring to their sound and also to a mainstream audience. The strength of the abilities of the people this band are working with paired with their ability to perform those songs and write songs of their own really creates some pretty fun music. It's been really interesting to see how these co-writers are taking their talents and working with 5SOS and how they are able to take more of a guitar based band sound and make it appeal to a mainstream audience in the way they have. The band continues to show there is a very large market for pop/punk outside of the indie world. It just has to be presented the right way to find a really large audience.

Whether you like them or not 5 Seconds Of Summer has put together a strong set of pop/punk songs with this new album. I think a lot of the credit probably is owed to the producer and the co-writers, much like I thought their last album owed a lot to them. However, the band performs the songs solidly and at the end of the day the success of each and every song on their album pretty much rests on them being able to sell the songs to their audience. I think they'll succeed with this album and probably gain a few more fans. Everything is well done and packaged neatly for "pop/punkers" of all ages from tween-adult to be able to enjoy. No, the album won't go down as a standout album in pop/punk history, but 5SOS might go down as an interesting mainstream major label pop/punk experiment that seems to continue to work on this sophomore album.