Boy bands like One Direction and The Vamps embrace matching outfits and synchronized choreography. Rising to fame alongside those groups, 5 Seconds of Summer often gets classified as a boy band, despite its members emphasizing the contrary. 

Released on Friday, their new album “EVERYONE’S A STAR!” aims to break out of that pigeonhole by chasing themes of identity crises and public perception rather than writing music about teen angst — a common theme in the band’s past albums. 

“Calling grown men a boy band is almost like pointing at a 30-year-old and telling them they’re in high school — it kind of feels humiliating,” drummer Ashton Irwin said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “It’s nice to bark back at that concept.”

Their focus when producing the album seemed to reside in creating a new genre-fluid sound, straying away from the pop-rock identity by which fans recognize them, experimenting with extra bass drums and higher sensitivity. However, the lyrics’ quality falls flat.

On their self-titled debut album, 5SOS sang, “You look so perfect standing there in my American Apparel underwear.” This popular lyric encapsulates a time when the band members found writing about underwear comedic, creating songs that showed their age. 

On their new album, the lyrics have a broader scope, resonating with an audience that grew up with the band, yet the lyrics feel similar to hundreds of other songs written about music industry struggles, and while the band has evolved in their sound, they haven’t grown past the simplistic lyrics.

“Boy in a boyband, imaginary boyfriend,” 5SOS sings on their track “Boyband.” “Make that monkey dance.”The lyrics showcase their record label’s controlling nature, comparing the band to a monkey that jumps at every command. However, the on-the-nose nature of these lyrics leaves nothing to interpretation.

Nonetheless, this album shifts the band’s sound from pop-punk to a more traditional alternative rock. “No. 1 Obsession” offers thumping drums and synth beats, making for an album that insinuates a physical reaction and rave-like energy. Furthermore, songs like “NOT OK” and “Telephone Busy” have a fast-paced nature to them, in both lyrics and musicality, that replicates the anxiety and struggle young musicians have in wanting to matter and be heard. 

Many tracks on this album take inspiration from Y2K bands, such as Gorillaz. With more complex themes of self-preservation and the intricacies of fame, “The Rocks” resonates with other, more traditionally rock bands from the early 2000s.

“EVERYONE’S A STAR!” shifts 5SOS’s music from being something played when a group of teenagers dances around their room to a soundtrack for head-banging and foot-stomping.

“I’d rather (die trying to reinvent what we are) than just go back to making stale pop-punk records,” Irwin said in an interview with Rolling Stone.

To the band, this record reinvented itself and redefined what it means to be a boy band, which they greatly accomplished. However, the lyrical quality, although poetic, felt a few steps behind the new and mature artists shown on this record. 

3 ½ boybands out of 5