#OnRepeat: January

When 5 Seconds Of Summer announced their second album, I immediately pre-ordered the deluxe edition to get access to their tour pre-sale.

The album showed up on my doorstep in late October and after a brief play through, it lay neglected on my desk. 

That isn't to say I was disappointed with the music; I was just too preoccupied with life and university to become obsessed with it.

Early January, I rediscovered the standard version on Spotify and downloaded it so I could listen to it 24/7.

Sounds Good, Feels Good? More like Sounds Amazing, Feels Addictive!

Click below for more!

Favourite Track: Jet Black Heart

Least Favourite Track: Broken Home

Most meaningful lyric:

Late night pass out in Tokyo,
New York, LA, Chicago.
She said her friends would like the show,
Backstage we'll let them in.

They wanna be, be, be in the game,
They wanna know, know, what we gotta say,
Front row, you're going insane,
and in the back row, you're killing the game.

Overview:

There are parts of this album that I am in love with, and parts that I forget exist ('Waste the Night', 'Airplanes' and even 'Invisible', ironically... and it's one of my favourites too!). To be critical, there are elements which just sound like One Direction songs, and at times I have genuinely checked to see who I am listening to. As a 5SOS fan, that pains me! But aside from the few reminiscent moments of 1D, this album is so much more true to 5SOS' style than its predecessor. It's refreshing to hear that beautiful mix of mainstream pop and pop-punk on so many tracks.

'Broken Home' is my least favourite musically, but lyrically it is relatable to many people. It's reminiscent of Blink 182's 'Stay Together for the Kids' and Luke Hemming's cracked vocals in the second chorus makes listening to it all the more beautiful.

It's cliché that 'Jet Black Heart' is my favourite track, as it's also been released as a single, yet the song is just so Michael Clifford, its co-writer, that I don't feel like I should pick a more unheard track as a favourite. It has everything; relatable lyrics and metaphors, check. A bridge which climbs into a passionate chorus, check. An insight into the bands mind? Check.

To give a few honourable mentions, 'Money' references the band's superstar-lifestyle and gives a nod to passionate fans/groupies, 'She's Kinda Hot' brings a punk spin on an anthem song with references to being 'broken' and getting out of a suffocating town, 'Outer Space/Carry On' has a Boulevard of Broken Dreams/Holiday feel about it and I urge you to stick around for the 'Carry On' aspect of it and 'San Francisco' has some beautiful guitar-backing Calum Hood vocals opening it, a musically Temper Trap ending which could form an instrumental track of its own and is a lot more chilled than some of the other drums-heavy tracks lying around.

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