5 Seconds of Summer are everyone's favourite boyband with 'EVERYONE'S A STAR!'

The four-piece of Luke Hemmings, Ashton Irwin, Michael Clifford and Calum Hood have gelled together on this album in a way that shows they have done far more than simply reclaimed the ‘boyband’ label. They have taken full creative control to redefine this idea entirely and, in the process, shatter every assumption you held about them. Combining those classic 5 Seconds of Summer sparkles that we have loved since their debut in 2011, along with new nuance that each member has crafted during their solo careers, their new album 'EVERYONE'S A STAR!' demonstrates why this band have stayed in the hearts (and headphones) of fans for over a decade.

The album's title track, ‘Everyone’s A Star!’, is a shimmering insight into glitz and glam overshadowed by the emotional labour of sustaining a public persona. It interrogates how much of that image is performance, a façade shaped by the perceptions of a long standing community and fanbase. Across their impressively long career, 5 Seconds of Summer have cycled through multiple versions of themselves, weathering both peaks and pits, and this song builds an entire universe around the phrase ‘everyone’s a star’ and the ways it can be interpreted. Dissociation is dressed up as glamour in the bridge as it explores the idea of performing happiness while starving for something real behind the scenes. Lines like ‘Livin' in the glitter, baby, I don't feel a thing / Everythin' is better when I don't know what it means / Eating gum for dinner and I'm smilin' through my teeth’ expose this deprivation and disorder beneath the rock-and-roll sheen. As the opening track, it is the perfect entry point into a polished yet expansive and experimental sound, one that digs into the gritty truth of their lived experience in the industry.

‘NOT OK’ is the single that started it all. Plastering ‘your favourite boyband is coming back’ across major cities was a guaranteed way to reignite the obsession of every fan who drew five-mark tallies on their wrists a decade ago. It pulled people back together in a frenzy of theories to piece together what was happening and when, without the band’s name even attached. The song lived up to the hype entirely. Another upbeat track, ‘NOT OK’ carries the chaotic spark they are known for, but its lyrics walk the depths of a darker territory. It dives straight into the feeling of hitting rock bottom, only to be dragged out of the spiral for one reckless night, a surrendering of all inhibitions for the thrill of it all. We see this open acknowledgement of choosing the darker route, biting the apple, and turning your back on the version of yourself that is supposed to be seen as good. The chorus becomes this impulsive confession that ‘Hey, I’m not okay / I like the darker side of me, that part of me / Comes out to play when I’m with you’ and owns this destruction of the path paved for you with deliberate chaos. Then comes the drunk dialing honesty, murmuring, ‘Got these wheels rolling its 4 in the morning / All over the city / And I said I loved you, but I didn’t really mean it I, I don’t think but / Anyways, turn it up’, with no regard for consequences or even remembering it the next day. The swirling, distorted final line, ‘Oh my god, I feel invincible’ melts down the drain and captures the ego of this track perfectly. It lets everything that has been repressed spill out, and collapses into the dizzy, spinning room moment right before blackout.

An absolute standout of the project is 'Telephone Busy', a surprise release ahead of the album's release this week. It's a sultry, intoxicating earworm that transports you to a disorientating dancefloor -- but one that you never want to leave. Its pre-chorus of 'You're just uncomfortable / Being with somebody who's good for you / Uh-huh, she says it's just my nature / And she says it like I'll never change' calls out the cycle of pushing love away before pulling it back in with the spiralling chorus of 'I been thinking, do you miss me? Does my memory make you wanna kiss me?' in a way that only 5 Seconds of Summer could. Both lyrically and structurally, 'Telephone Busy' forces you to be one with the unraveling of this relationship as the song reaches its explosive bridge of 'I'll never change / I won't ever change'. This is a project covertly all about identity and compromise, and this track encapsulates this in every way possible. Its looping repetition becomes the song's beating heart, and traps you into that rhythm as you carry through the rest of the running order.

Listening to 'Boyband' for the first-time absolutely transports the listener back to being a teenage fan of the band. Its intro 'I'm your favourite boyband' bursts through in a surge of confidence, echoing that exact rush we got when seeing them step on stage in the 2010s. The song's unapologetic chorus, 'Stay young, love me till I get it wrong / Make me the flavour of the week / Now I only feel alive when you're looking at me', pokes at the struggles of joining the public eye at a young age and being open to the various ebbs and flows of fame, being hated and loved in the same breath. This is a band who has been in every corner of the music industry scene, and has come out the other side with the right to say it exactly how it is. 'Boyband' is a victory lap of where the four-piece have been over the past decade, and what comes next.

Following from this, 'No. 1 Obsession' feels like the sibling of 'Boyband', looking at the intensity of the online world and living life through our phone screens. The second verse is in a league of its own: 'I can't fall asleep, it's like I'm in a dream / Lucid energy takin' over me / I'm dying for a little bit of your affection / I'd do anything to be the only one that you think of.' It moves between the effects of screen overload and the craving for someone's attention with a smoothness that makes the verse hit even harder. The band's ability to shift comfortably within a duality such as this gives the album it's punch and lends each song a lasting replay value, with little details and Easter eggs that reward repeated listens. All-encompassing and intoxicating, the track is both overwhelming and irresistibly danceable -- a perfect mirror for the highs and lows of any obsession.

'I'm Scared I'll Never Sleep Again' is 5 Seconds of Summer doing what they do best: yearning in that raw, restless way that only they can capture, torn between wanting comfort and fearing you'll never find it again. This is a song all about connection and intimacy, but what happens when you're apart from this. For the fans of 'Disconnected', this is one for you, marking a shift in pace on the album track list, as emotionally sincere tracks begin to take the spotlight.

‘istillfeelthesame’ is soft and lyrically simple, a gentle ode to an everlasting love that cuts through all the noise. Everything else can fade or evolve, yet looking into the eyes of your eternal love pulls you right back to the very first moment that remains unchanged as the chorus confesses, ‘I still feel the same / Your heart’s beating different / Show me nothing’s changed / Kiss me like you mean it.’ It is the instrumental outro that elevates the track. It feels weightless and proves they can balance rock-and-roll edge with genuine romance as the song drifts away. ‘Ghost’, meanwhile, is present and raw, offering a different emotional palette. It steps away from their more mainstream sound, instead offering a moody, ethereal atmosphere that captures numbed-out escapism and aching vulnerability. The track feels ambient and floating, its lyrics adding to the haunting narrative as Luke says, ‘I don't want to go to sleep / ’Cause I'm afraid of what I’ll see / And I can’t look you in the eyes / ’Cause I’m afraid it looks like me.’ Lines like ‘Drunk and high when I need you most / You and I, haunted by a similar ghost’ deepen the idea of a shared struggle, trying to outrun the shadows and the addition of ‘Some lady screamed, "Jesus can save him"’ show the societal pressure that can amount on top while trying to seem fine. The track amps up at the very end, adding more to this texture and leaves the song hauntingly unresolved. 5 Seconds of Summer refuse to stay in one spot throughout this record and it changes the perception you entered into the listening experience with.

'Sick of Myself' will soundtrack countless car journeys to come, it's a captivating tune from start to finish. It feels like the light at the end of the end of the album's heavier, more introspective moments, with lyrics like 'Wakin' up next to you, best that I felt'. It becomes an ode to the identity crises running through the project, and to the person who makes those crises feel just a little easier to bear. Count this as a public plea for it to be added to their 2026 tour setlist, because we need to hear the O2 singing along to the repeated outro of 'Please, stay'. Keeping up with this party energy is 'Evolve', a truly explosive and catchy track. You can hear the band having fun while recording and writing this track, from the adlibs and stacked instruments to the chaos spilling out of your speakers.

Closing tracks 'The Rocks' and 'Jawbreaker' feel like grown up echoes from the band's earlier albums, carrying the same unmistakable aura, but now sharper and more defined. They're riddled with that pop-punk energy fans fell in love with back then, and still holds up effortlessly today. These are the perfect final songs to end this run of tracks, as a nod to both isolation and closeness, the future and the past.

‘EVERYONE’S A STAR!’ is a project that embraces the chaos of reinvention, capturing both the shimmer and shadows of a life lived in the public eye. It is self aware in looking back towards past selves, while asserting present truths of who they are now as a band with individual stories coming into play throughout the process.  The result is an honest, ambitious body of work that leans fully into the act of reclaiming yourself and your power.

We were kindly invited to review this album ahead of its release. A huge thank you to the Chuff Media team for this opportunity. All thoughts are our own.