5SOS - "Don't Stop"

This video is an experience. For an experience that's not so weird, below is the lyric video.

Album: 5 Seconds of Summer
Released: May 2014 (single)
Writers: Steve Robson, Busbee, Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood

When I first got into 5 Seconds of Summer (after hearing She Looks So Perfect), I was alone for a while. I told my friends about them, and I even entered a contest to meet them, but I didn't show anyone their music at first for some reason. By the time this song came out, though, I was trying to get my friends behind them as well. When this lyric video was first released, I would play it everywhere I went--on the way to class, studying, at the gym (the few times I went that semester), in the shower...everywhere. After a while, I just couldn't handle it by myself anymore. I sent the lyric video to my roommate, Aley, and my friend Cori, whom I mentioned before. Based on their responses and what I already knew about their interests, I strategically picked out songs, videos, and pictures to send them. It worked beautifully. They were in.

Since Aley and I shared a room, our love for 5SOS spiraled out of control rather quickly. We fed off each other's hysteria. We followed update accounts on Twitter so we would know about upcoming events and performances, followed 5SOS blogs on Tumblr so we could be totally plugged in to the fandom, and watched every single twitcam the band had ever done (all while lamenting the fact that we weren't around for the twitcam era...it was bad).

I'll share a couple anecdotes to illustrate how far gone we were.

Story #1: Some early morning performance in May

After Don't Stop was released as a single, 5SOS did a good deal of traveling to promote the song. We tried to keep up with all of this and watch as many performances as we could. One of their performances (I can't remember which one) happened around 10 a.m. our time on a Saturday, which was the same time we had made plans to go to brunch with a group of our friends. Luckily, this brunch was held in our school's dining hall amidst a great deal of noise, so we could still watch the performance live on my phone without disturbing anyone!

And we did. Well, the first part at least. We underestimated how excited we were going to get about the song, so we spent most of it with our hands covering our mouths, trying to hide the fact that we went to great lengths to watch some Australian teenagers (but Ashton was almost 20!) singing a three-minute pop song LIVE. Unfortunately, the performance was followed by an interview, and how could we skip out on that?! I'm sure I squealed numerous times. I think one of our friends found us out, but he was kind enough to keep it to himself. We were a little ashamed, but probably not enough.

Story #2: Billboard Music Awards 2014 + Don't Stop Music Video Release

Shortly after that last performance, Aley and I found out that 5SOS would be performing at the Billboard Music Awards. I didn't even know what the Billboard Music Awards were, but I didn't care! This was huge! It would essentially be their biggest platform in America to date. Yes, they had opened for One Direction on the Take Me Home tour, and yes, they had made several previous appearances in America, but this would be their biggest televised performance yet. Since we followed fans on various social media sites, we knew that some fans were anxious about the rest of America seeing 5SOS. They were sort of possessive of 5SOS and had enjoyed the intimacy that came with being part of their fan base. #herebeforebbmas was a popular hashtag on twitter for real fans who wanted to make themselves known. Aley and I were there before the BBMAs, but only barely, so we joked about it a good bit.

Somehow, we found a way to watch their performance on our apartment's TV. When it was time, we huddled together on the couch, stifling screams when we heard the first notes of She Looks So Perfect. I held my breath through most of the song and fell back on the couch when it was over. We were pathetic. Still, it wasn't over yet. Don't Stop was being released at 3 a.m. our time (or maybe 12 a.m.--I can't remember), and of course we were going to stay up for that. We just needed to find a way to pass the time until then. We decided that we wanted to figure out what our favorite 5SOS song was, but that was no easy task.

Obviously, we would have to have a tournament. We made a bracket and spent way too much time talking it over. How should we pick which songs to pit against each other? How should we compare upbeat songs and slow songs? Should we take music videos into account?

We came up with a winner eventually. Keep in mind that this was very early in our listening experiences.

We were very proud of our bracket and tweeted about it. By the time it was all said and done, there were only 30 minutes left until the video premiered. Like I said, we spent way too much time on it.

The video was glorious. They had released pictures of themselves dressed up as superheroes in the days leading up to the video, so we knew what the theme would be, but they outdid themselves. The video was so endearing, and we were reminded of why we loved them. The song is so much fun and has such a high energy level, and I think the video reflects that really well. It's not my favorite song of theirs, but it's a solid pop song, and the video elevates it in my mind. It still brings a smile to my face, and so do the memories surrounding it.

You're like perfection, some kind of holiday
You got me thinking that we can run away

5SOS - "She Looks So Perfect"

(Only watch the above video if you don't mind seeing people dance around in their underwear - an alternative is the lyric video below)

Album: 5 Seconds of Summer (also She Looks So Perfect EP)
Released: February 2014 (single)
Writers: Jake Sinclair, Ashton Irwin, Michael Clifford

The first time I heard "She Looks So Perfect" (I'll call it SLSP for short) was also the first time I watched the music video, which was late one night my last semester of college. I was up doing work for a class, and I went on YouTube to look for music to listen to while I worked. I had exhausted my usual playlists, and I wanted something I hadn't heard before. Then somehow, I stumbled across this music video.

The video was kind of edgy but kind of goofy, too, and I liked that. After watching it once, I wasn't exactly hooked, but I was definitely intrigued. I wanted to listen to it again, so I did. And then I did again. And again. And then I bought the EP. And then I went back and found as much of their other music as I could find. I honestly can't remember another time I've fallen in love with a band so quickly.

I thought I'd be tired of hearing SLSP by now, but I'm not. It's been a year since it was released, and I've found new things I love about it almost every time I've listened to it or watched the video. I am now convinced that this is a perfect song.

That first guitar chord, the "hey"s, Luke's voice (hearing him sing for the first time was honestly a life-changing experience--and I'm sorry to say I'm not really exaggerating), the bass drop into the chorus, the rush I still get when the chorus comes in, POWER CHORDS FOREVER, Michael's high harmonies and Calum's falsetto in the second verse, those guitar lines that punctuate the end of every chorus, that octave jump, Ashton going crazy on the drums at the end...I love everything about this song.

And the lyrics--half of them don't even make sense, but who cares? Why's she wearing his underwear? (Note: Calum would later address this in an interview, when he admitted that it was weird but "kinda hot") Why would you say "simmer down" in a song? (Note: in what was probably one of the lamest jokes of all time, Luke told fans to "simmer down" before an acoustic outdoor performance of this song) Why did they make a mixtape straight out of '94 when only one band member was even alive then? Was the mixtape really just Green Day's Dookie? Whatever. This song has gotten a good deal of criticism for its vapid lyrics that are vague enough so any girl can imagine herself as the eponymous "she," but it's also gotten praise as a "girl worship" anthem and a really, really fun song.

You can't listen to this song and doubt their sincerity. You may doubt their credibility as a pop-punk band, but they've got the sentiment down. The unashamed infatuation with this girl, the disregard of what everyone else says, the desire to run away with her (complete with a reference to "this deadbeat town"), the wild promises only a teenager in love could make, all sold with big harmonies, power chords, and underwear.

Would you wanna run away too? 'Cause all I really want is you.

I'm Back!

I made two whole posts on my blog, and then I abandoned it for seven months. Hopefully this isn't a trend. Right after I decided to start doing this, my life got very, very busy, and I quickly forgot about it. Lately, though, I've been looking for more creative outlets, so I've decided to pick this back up.

Now, I was supposed to write about the 5 Seconds of Summer album right when it came out, but obviously it's been a while since that happened. I'm still going to write about 5SOS, but this time it'll be after listening to the album many, many times. I'll try to recall my first impressions of the songs, but I'll also have a new perspective on them.

To be honest, it's been a while since I immersed myself in 5SOS, so this will be interesting. Since I started this blog, I went to a 5 Seconds of Summer/One Direction concert with Cori, one of my best friends (I'll probably mention her several times in these posts). Whenever I can, I may throw in some impressions of songs we saw live. Also, this may get kind of personal, because it's hard for me to separate some songs (see: every song from the 1D concert) from experiences I've had (see: the 1D concert).

I guess I'll go ahead and pick up where I left off: with 5 Seconds of Summer!

UP NEXT: 5 Seconds of Summer

Left to right: Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings, Michael Clifford, Ashton Irwin

So, for the next however long it takes me, I'm going to be talking about 5 Seconds of Summer. More specifically, I'm going to be talking about their first album, which just came out in the U.S. on Tuesday. I preordered it on iTunes and got some of the songs early, so I'm fairly familiar with those now. Other songs are pretty new to me, but considering how much I've listened to the album over the past few days, I don't think they will be for long.

5SOS is a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S. (in that they released their first single here a few months ago), but they've actually been around for a few years now (since 2011). It probably seems to most people here that things are happening really fast for them, but they've been working hard for a while, and everything is finally coming together in a way that a lot of people can see and appreciate. I've only known about them since they posted the video for their first single (I think I first saw it around late February/early March), but since then I've become a pretty big fan. Let me go ahead and give some basic information since I'll probably be referring to it later:

Members:
Luke Hemmings - guitar, vocals
Michael Clifford - guitar, vocals
Calum Hood - bass, vocals
Ashton Irwin - drums, vocals

Origin: Australia, 2011

The type of music they make is kind of a subject of debate in some circles, but I'm just going to let the music speak for itself. There are a lot of things I like about them, and I really think they're worth giving a listen (or several). But, I'll leave all that for when I start talking about specific songs.

So without further ado, here's 5 Seconds of Summer!

Introduction

Contrary to what the title might suggest, this isn't going to be a Bruce Springsteen blog (though I'm sure his songs will make many appearances). Also, it probably seems like I chose the title to make myself seem cooler, and maybe I did, but really I just like that song and the way that line sounds. My brother made fun of me for it, but oh well.

Well, before I ramble too much (and I can guarantee that I will), I'll explain what this blog is supposed to be. Mostly, I just made this so I could write about music I like. It's basically a journal, but I wanted to put it here instead of on paper so I could link songs and be more organized with my thoughts. Each post I make will be devoted to one song, and I'll probably just pick whatever I'm listening to at the time. I can't really say for sure what sorts of songs I'll include, but that makes it more interesting, right?

Now, just a disclaimer: I don't really know very much about music in terms of technical things, so I apologize if I say anything that doesn't make sense. I'll probably be the only one that reads any of this, but I thought I'd put that in just in case.

WOOO GET EXCITED. I'll try not to fangirl too much, but I can't make any promises.