5 Seconds of Summer's 5 Seconds of Summer (2014): A Retrospective
In 2013 and 2014, budding pop-punk four-piece 5 Seconds of Summer, formed in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, opened for pop music's princely heartthrobs One Direction - introducing hundreds of thousands of girls to the safety-pinned and graffitied world of punk. Playing songs off of their early EPs and debut album, 5 Seconds of Summer hit the stage with punchy, smoking guitars, electric drumming, and emotive, imperfect vocals, a soundscape that struck a chord in lost but voiceless girls coming-of-age, and wrote about the themes of social estrangement, breaking the rules for 'good' behaviour, and bodily romance, matters that were tempting to these girls like a cinnamon heart.
2014's 5 Seconds of Summer gave these coming-of-age fans something material to hold on to, a meeting place for unfurling desires and developing politics, for an identity found in ripped denim and punk slogan-ed-flannel and a community that felt and thought the same as they did - it offered an untouched avenue for clumsy self-making in an authentic image.
Teenage girl culture and teen girls' adoption of alternative cultures are trampled on as if it were a sport for prizes, but 5 Seconds of Summer (or, lovingly, "5SOS") built a garden where both shrinking violets could bloom, as seen in their debut album's first song, "She Looks So Perfect." 5SOS did not just tape out a space for teen girls to feel special and to play with nascent petals of desire as had One Direction ("If I showed up with a plane ticket / And a shiny diamond ring with your name on it"), the band invited the listener into their bedroom, to diary pages scribbled with the secrets kept behind the door: "You look so perfect standing there / In my American Apparel underwear." The single's gritty vocals, thundering guitars and crashing drums was for a number of teen girls, the first taste that lead them to find the bands that influenced 5SOS' sound, like Green Day, Blink-182 and All Time Low - bands that held the keys to unlock truer self-making and sharper-edged political perspectives.
On "Good Girls," the pedal was pushed on crowning girls that took saws to the chains of 'being good' and wore their devil horns with pride. Backed by perfume- and Marlboro-scented instrumentation lead by lipstick print-smothered guitar lines and a flirty melody, its lyrics dutifully winked at rosy-cheeked vamps that had their playbooks down like an art form, and sparked the flame of cinnamon candy heart-rebellion prescribed for a healthy adolescence and as an antidote in a life gripped by wrought-iron rules and diamond-making pressure.
Next to 2013's "Try Hard," "18" smoked a cigarette up against a chain-link fence that the listener could peek at, heart-eyed, with a pair of binoculars. Glistening with a raunchy rhythm, a reckless and swaggering guitar riff and devilish vocal performances, "18" told smoky stories of the adult world's pearly thrills and onyx vices, making listeners swoon, even teasing some to trade in peach lipgloss for black eyeliner and trespass into such a forbidden world for ourselves.
"Everything I Didn't Say" poured gasoline on the dampened embers of one's thinking that boys, cold-to-the-touch stone before the eyes of you, their mates and the rest of the world, bled their fingers pulling petals off of roses behind the iron gates of their seclusion. If the members of 5 Seconds of Summer poured over hidden boxes of love letters, awash in the emotion of lamenting instrumentation, a tearful melody and pleading vocals, then maybe the boy of steel that held your heart in his hands was a raven-winged Romeo after all.
Like the previous track, "Long Way Home," of gentle guitars, heartfelt singing and a nostalgic sound, added stars to dark bedroom ceilings, lighting up lonely, never-ending nights with movie-reels of one's heartbeat being felt in their lungs in the passengers seat of a band tee-wearing James Dean's beat-up car. While 5SOS' boy band contemporaries sang diet sugar cookie love songs akin to 1950s doo-wop, their lyrics were heartfelt, stamped and sealed with authenticity: the innocent giddiness of a strawberry pie-love and the wistful sombreness of a looming goodbye confessed in "Long Way Home" were made by the eight hands of 5SOS' members.
"Heartbreak Girl" was the first-aid-kit for all the girls that had no golden-hearted boy-next-door to dial in their bedrooms with the door closed. When your beau bruised your heart and there was nothing but white noise to hand you tissues, share a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and say the sweet things that you're needing to hear, the song's rockabilly sound, darling melodies and red rose lines like "'Cause I'm just a sucker for anything that you do," "Hold you tight straight through to daylight / I'm right here / When you gonna realize / That I'm your cure?" and "I've gotta get it through your head / That you belong with me instead" was there on a silver platter with a candy-red ribbon.
"End Up Here" could be danced to in the kitchen with eyes closed, imagining streamers, lavender haze and cool, indie types to be to the right and to the left, shouty vocals, carefree guitar playing and a thumping drumbeat taking you to the sticky floors of a clove-and-sage loft apartment. The boys' references to idols of independent culture ("You said you liked my Cobain shirt, now we're walkin' back to your place / You're tellin' me how you love that song about living on a prayer") drove the listener to thrift a Rolling Stones tee faintly scented of Marlboros and an inked-up copy of a book by Lennon or Bukowski, and with the song pounding in one's ears, one was lit to strut around the streets of their town like they shook off gold glitter with each step.
"Mrs. All American" could be likened to the spritzing of dark cherry perfume on one's skin: the song spurred one on to shoot fox-like eyes at strangers that looked like no-good, lock lips with a dice of nameless pouts with no strings in sight and crush hearts like they were made of candy. Like its smokier, sweatier London cousin, "English Love Affair" off of 5SOS' debut album's B-Sides and Rarities, its cherry bomb-song structure, incendiary instrumentation, honey-dripping lyrics ("Don't be shy, Mrs. All American / I'll show you why / You're not gonna walk away," "Not just a neighbour, oh hey there, I'll ring your bell / Open your door, pucker up, and I'll kiss you well /...Your secret's mine, close your eyes and I'll make you melt") and daredevil spirit drew one to dress up in the slinky armour and play the role of a red-lipped, wind-swept femme fatale whose walk and reputation would bring Luke, Cal, Mikey or Ash to their knees.
"Amnesia" was a hiding place a listener could curl up in, and bury themselves in the down of Michael's melancholy strumming and the boys' understanding voices, until their broken bones could begin to mend. Whether one's heart shattered as maple leaves crunched or beds of snow melted, as wildflowers stuck out their noses or rosy eves sighed, and whether the blow was dealt by a snipped friendship bracelet, a tossed promise ring or a parent's scorching voice, Calum's haunted "How could you be fine? / 'Cause I'm not fine at all" and Calum and Luke's gut-wrenching "I wish that I could wake up with amnesia / And forget about the stupid little things," were the right needles to stitch one up.
Many purple-hearted punks brandished pitchforks underneath 5SOS' noses for their fuzzy-edged sound and days sharing a stage with One Direction, but "Social Casualty" lent its ear, and spoke of how to break out of the normal, how to cut out a path untethered to the lead weight of quiet, smiling submission. Its anti-establishment message and roaring sound raised a sword against the ills that schools give gold stars to only those that fit neatly into their cookie cutters; that girls throw knives they are told to wield and boys sink their teeth into the wounds; and that growing up can feel like time-ticking until one becomes a sunken-faced, bleary-eyed cog. And like "She Looks So Perfect" was a gateway to the land of pop-punk, "Social Casualty" handed over a compass that pointed towards bands that put out toothier political protests chiseled with closer knife-work.
"Never Be" poured from speakers, spinning around stars in the night sky, on missions to pick up cherry slushies, run into lakes' shallows and pitch tents in the soft grasses beside to-be high schools as a campfire blazed, dusky instrumentation and yearning vocals echoing the last wisps of warmth and the faint chill of autumn on the cusp of summertime. The lyrical tribute to the time that we are given interlocked with the nights when the firecracker-now was fleeting but eternity seemed to stretch out beyond the horizon; its mementos of youth grasped that fluttering feeling of when everything could just be reached but no one knew what would come by morning light.
5 Seconds of Summer's last song "Voodoo Doll" is not a love song, it is a curse in the name of an indigo-haired Calypso, yet the band's pleas against their muse's ability to wield such power over them - "Tell me where you're hiding your voodoo doll 'cause I can't control myself / I don't wanna stay, I wanna run away but I'm trapped under your spell / And it hurts in my head and my heart and my chest / And I'm having trouble catching my breath," "I don't know why you kept me up all night /...I can feel you watching even when you're nowhere to be seen / I can feel your touch even when you're far away from me - sounded as sweet as candied kisses to a shrinking violet's unseen, dispirited ears. For a number of 5 Seconds of Summer's coming-of-age female fans that felt disempowered, living in worlds in which hunting down teenage girls is a traditional game and the pressure on them to be every inch a doll can kill, imagining oneself as a famed witch who possessed such dark magic was a fantasy trapped in the bars of the song.
