5 Seconds of Summer - Everyone's a Star!

There’s a version of this album that could have been insufferable. A decade into their career, with a clean slate and a long history behind them, 5 Seconds of Summer could easily have made a sleek, self-important record about “maturity” and “growth”. They could have told everyone what it means to be an adult pop-rock band in 2025, sprinkled in some tasteful string sections, and called it a reinvention. Thankfully, they’ve done the opposite. ‘Everyone’s a Star!’ is lean, odd, slightly chaotic, and built on the realisation that the most interesting thing 5SOS can do now is stop trying to live up to any fixed idea of what they’re supposed to be.

Across twelve tracks, spread over a trim 36 minutes, the band jump between self-referential humour, nervy synth-rock, glossy mid-tempo pop, and guitar-led anthems without ever pretending the seams aren’t visible. If their last couple of records smoothed out the edges in pursuit of cohesion, this one brings them back intentionally. The title track sets the tone immediately: distorted vocals, grubby electronics, and a sense that they’re kicking off not with a grand declaration but with a sideways-up grin. It’s a savvy opener - recognisably them, but scraping off enough polish to make you lean in.

The run of early singles – ‘Not OK’, ‘Telephone Busy’, ‘Boyband’ – makes it clear they’re not interested in playing the nostalgia card either. ‘Boyband’ in particular is the kind of manoeuvre you can only make once you’re genuinely comfortable with your own history. Instead of dodging the term that defined their early years, they treat it as raw material. The track is sharp, snotty, knowingly theatrical, and more thoughtful than it pretends to be. It’s also one of the clearest reminders that 5SOS have always been more self-aware than the discourse around them allowed. The production is streamlined and modern, but the attitude is pure raised-eyebrow punk.

That willingness to move between tones is where the record thrives. ‘Not OK’ marries jagged electronic beats to a massive chorus in a way that feels deliberately lopsided. ‘Telephone Busy’ leans harder into synth-pop than anything they’ve attempted before, but the push-pull between digital coldness and emotional intensity works. There are moments where the experiments feel as if they’re veering off track, but crucially, they never drift into confusion. The band sound like they know exactly where the boundaries are; they’re just choosing to ignore them half the time.

Where previous 5SOS albums often split neatly between big belters and earnest ballads, Everyone’s a Star! blurs the line. ‘I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again’ and ‘istillfeelthesame’ are two of the strongest songs here because they sit right in the middle. The former is anxious, twitchy, and surprisingly quiet for such a direct title; the latter pulls from the same palette but turns inward, slowly circling around a melody that never explodes but lingers far longer than expected. There’s a different kind of confidence here; less about proving capability, more about trusting simplicity.

Not everything lands perfectly. A couple of tracks risk blending into one another with their mid-tempo rock sheen, and at times the vocal effects land more as stylistic clutter than meaningful texture. But these moments don’t define the album - and crucially, they don’t derail it. What’s far more important is that the band finally sound like they’re writing to please themselves first, rather than a shifting idea of what their audience expects from a “grown” pop-rock group.

For a band who’ve spent a decade proving they’re not what people said they were, this might be the first time they’ve sounded entirely sure of who they are. The album may not convert their detractors, but it does something more important: it shows 5 Seconds of Summer have figured out how to grow without letting their edges fade. In 2025, that’s more valuable than reinvention. It’s an evolution that actually feels lived in.