Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By 5 Seconds Of Summer, Interscope Records/EMI, 2020.
Pop/rock band 5 Seconds Of Summer (5SOS) formed in Sydney in 2011 and have gone on to be one of the highest grossing acts to emerge from our shores in recent years.
Calm is their 4th album and it has been released in the middle of a major pandemic that has severely curtailed its promotion.
Not that it has sunk without a trace. It’s already reached number 1 in both the UK and Australian charts and number 2 in the USA (the band’s first 3 albums reached #1 in the US).
This is quite an achievement considering these uncertain times.
Promotion of the album was well under way for their USA tour with venues booked, dates set for US television appearances, and even a ten-stories high poster displayed in Times Square, but that was before social distancing and 20,000+ deaths in America.
It’s a shame because the album is very good.
Calm is the first of their albums that I’ve listened to in its entirety and I’ve discovered there’s a lot more to the band than I’d originally expected.
There are some standout tracks on the disc. I particularly like the first track, Red Desert, with its choral opening – it provides an impressive introduction to the album.
The simplicity of the final track, High also provides a nice end point.
Teeth has an interesting sparse intro before morphing into a powerful staccato punctuated rock song and Wildflower brings a return to the choral vocal treatment, although I don’t think the track develops the depth of Red Desert.
One of the best tracks on the album is Lover of Mine, which opens with sparse piano chords before a solo acoustic guitar takes up the melody. The track unfolds with some very impressive percussion work and layering of instruments.
5 Seconds Of Summer know how to compose a song to build interest. They cleverly mix tempos as well as intensity through instrumentation.
Calm is an album that should continue their meteoric rise despite the circumstances surrounding its release.
