5 Seconds of Summer reinvents itself in dazzling new record “EVERYONE’S A STAR!”

In an era where celebrities feel both worshipped and disposable, 5 Seconds of Summer’s EVERYONE’S A STAR! lands like a mirror to the modern age of stardom. It’s a concept album disguised as an alt-rock record — ironic and bitingly honest about what it means to perform for the world while still feeling unseen.

5SOS, one of the most successful music acts to come out of Australia, has spent the past decade proving they’re far more than “just a boy band.” Previously lumped into the likes of One Direction and Big Time Rush, the quartet has attempted to shy away from their previous stereotypes of skinny jeans and teenage pop anthems. 

But the topics of their youth stardom and boy band upbringing are spotlighted with their 6th studio album, fittingly titled EVERYONE’S A STAR!. The album balances satire with sincerity, letting the band critique the machine that made them. It’s a daring reframing of the narrative they’ve carried for years.

5SOS’s boy band “image” began as soon as they were thrust into the spotlight. Coming into an industry that was dominated by teenage heartthrobs like Harry Styles (One Direction), 5SOS fit the overall mold of the next hot pop boy band. It didn’t help that 5SOS toured with One Direction in their early days, further cementing that status.

“It makes us seem a bit fake,” lead singer Luke Hemmings said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2014. “Starting in a garage and writing our own songs and playing them in pubs to 10 people; I don’t think [being called a boy band] does us justice as a band.”

This controversy surrounding the efforts to adopt the boy band label culminated in a raunchy Rolling Stones cover — one that featured the band completely naked. The interview followed the same theme: tales of sex, leaked nudes, and hook-ups. This was all an attempt to escape the boy band box that the media had placed them in, a goal that drummer Ashton Irwin was adamant about in the interview.

“We don’t want to just be, like, for girls,” Irwin said in the now-infamous article. “We want to be for everyone. That’s the great mission that we have.”

Since then, 5SOS has undergone one of the most compelling sonic evolutions in the music industry — a shift documented through the distinct eras of Youngblood, CALM, and 5SOS5. Each album marked their deliberate steps away from the boy band label and toward the artistic autonomy they’ve fought for since the beginning.

2018’s Youngblood was the band’s first major transformation. They traded their skinny jeans, guyliner, and “basic” pop-punk anthems for flowy button-ups, sharp leather jackets, and darker, moodier lyricism. The title track became a global hit, surpassing the popularity of “She Looks So Perfect,” the record that catapulted them to stardom. But more importantly, the album proved the band had what it takes to reinvent themselves without losing momentum. 

The reinvention followed them throughout their subsequent eras of CALM and 5SOS5, the former leaning into the alt-pop category and the latter resembling that of indie-pop.

That momentum carries directly into EVERYONE’S A STAR!, an alt-rock/electro-punk album that doesn’t just reflect their decades-long evolution — it interrogates the system that’s defined them.

EVERYONE’S A STAR! opens with its titular track — a dark, synth-heavy song that poses the band’s thesis statement: fame and its side effects are an addictive drug that musicians and fans alike crave. The lyrics capture this message with bold lines like: “Livin’ in the glitter, baby, I don’t feel a thing; Everythin’ is better when I don’t know what it means; Eatin’ gum for dinner and I’m smilin’ through my teeth.” These phrases highlight the artificiality in the music industry that often accompanies stars.

In addition, “EVERYONE’S A STAR!” tackles social media’s role in the industry with the lyric, “Blue light killed the dreamer; Somewhere in the dark.” This line is a reference to the digital consumption of “celebrity” and the issue regarding the social media algorithm’s erasure of small artists (“dreamers”).

The track also introduces key metaphors and symbols that flow throughout the album: drugs, obsession, and self-hatred. The track’s imagery of emptiness and curated superficiality reflects the core theme of stardom’s effects on artists, serving as a perfect opening track. 

The same sentiment carries into the next song and lead single, “NOT OK.” The track highlights feelings of desire, a core sub-theme of EVERYONE’S A STAR!. The catchy hook of “Bite the apple” not only serves for that purpose, but serves just as much as a motif for desire itself. Stemming from the story of Adam and Eve, the band explores the idea of disobedience from the expected norm (or, in their case, the box the industry placed them in). This biblical theme continues with lyrics like “Lucifer in every line, every night,” highlighting a stray from a “good-boy persona.” The lyrics “I wanna dip my toe into the fire; Where did the good boy go?; Killed by desire” underline the theme as well, illustrating a craving to escape expectations. 

Possibly the most obvious industry call-out featured on the album is the second single “Boyband.” 5SOS released the track on October 16th, which is also the anniversary of One Direction’s Liam Payne’s death. 

“It’s impossible not to get affected by it,” Hemmings said of his former tourmate’s death in an interview with Rolling Stone. “All that anger and frustration, and sadness and grief, definitely plays a part in it.”

“Boyband” tackles the constructed nature of boy bands, their curated personas, and their exploitation in a satirical, lighthearted fashion. The truth of the song may slip past listeners at first, buried under a chorus so hook-heavy and polished that it almost distracts from its darker message. But that’s exactly what 5SOS was trying to point out: the industry obsession with superficial tunes that lack any true meaning.

By unpeeling the base layer, “Boyband” reveals the underlying complexities and objectifications of the boy band lifestyle. The lyrics “Give me… everything I want; Take my photograph and lick it with a wet tongue”, while grotesque and exaggerated, call out fandoms’ parasocial obsession — which perfectly encapsulates the album’s overarching theme. “Boyband” also tackles issues such as beauty standards: “Love me when I’m skinny and we never ever age”, the fickle nature of fandom: “Make me the flavour of the week; Now I only feel alive when you’re lookin’ at me”, and nostalgia: “Raised on pop punk and bubblegum”.

“No.1 Obsession” is another self-reflective and hard-hitting track that exposes the industry and the corruption within it. The song opens with the lyrics “I know that boys don’t cry; But I got teary eyes,” which is a direct critique of toxic masculinity. Hemmings pleads for reassurance in the next two lines, begging for emotional validation. He then flips the power dynamic with the lyric “I’ll keep your hunger satisfied”, promising to fulfill the other person’s wants even at his own expense — which is a direct jab at how the need for artists to kill themselves to be venerated in the public eye.

The chorus “Crush me with the sunshine of your heart; Shine a light on all my darkest thoughts; Take me to heaven, kill the depression; Make me your number one obsession” reveals the song’s core theme: the obsession with being revered in the public eye. This is clear in the second verse, where Hemmings sings, “I’d do anything to be the only one that you think of,” which illustrates artists’ obsession with fame. “No.1 Obsession” is a direct commentary on the unhealthy emotional dynamics that fame, validation, and relationships can all create.

Sonically, EVERYONE’S A STAR! exceeds expectations in the best way possible. In vivacious songs like “NOT OK” and “The Rocks,” Irwin’s drumming is at the forefront of the instrumental, providing a strong base for the melody. Slower ballads like “I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again” feature sensual guitar hymns, while upbeat anthems like “Evolve” feature thick guitar and bass lines. EVERYONE’S A STAR! is 5SOS’s most musically experimental album to date, and in most respects, it goes above and beyond their previous releases. 

While EVERYONE’S A STAR! is one of 5SOS’s most themed and cohesive albums yet, it does fall short in some respects. Fan-favorite songs like “Ghost” and “I’m Scared I’ll Never Sleep Again” share similar sub-themes as their earlier companions (substance abuse, lust, and self-loathing). Still, their production of sultry, slow beats and melancholy vocals separates them from the rest of the album. Their lyrics are as strong, if not stronger, than the other tracks, but the transition from danceable, drum-heavy anthems to flowy, softly synthesized ballads feels disjointed.

Fans also critique the line distribution in EVERYONE’S A STAR!, condemning the lack of vocals from lead guitarist Michael Clifford. While Clifford was rolling out his debut solo album Sidequest this summer, lead bassist Calum Hood released his own just a month earlier and had more vocals than the former. 

Despite this, EVERYONE’S A STAR! feels like the most 5SOS that 5SOS has ever been. This can be attributed to the release of the quartet’s solo work: Clifford’s Sidequest, Hood’s ORDER chaos ORDER, Hemmings’s When Facing The Things We Turn Away From and Boy (EP), and Irwin’s Superbloom and Blood on the Drums. The band’s ability to produce their own music and express themselves individually only strengthened their work together, which is evident when listening to the new album.

Overall, EVERYONE’S A STAR! is 5SOS’s most insightful and conceptually bold work to date. It is a necessary conversation, holding a fractured mirror to the dual nature of modern fame: the idolization that builds stars and the ruthless consumption that destroys them. 

The album succeeds in its primary mission: to finally reclaim the narrative of their own stardom. By dissecting the “boy band” mold, the parasocial obsession of fandoms, and the music industry’s artificiality, 5SOS turns their decade of experience into a sharp, self-aware critique. In doing so, EVERYONE’S A STAR! becomes their most compelling artistic statement — a deeply personal reckoning that resonates far beyond the confines of their pop-rock niche.