"Amnesia" - 5 Seconds of Summer (5Sos) - Pop Song Review

Hot 100: 16

Pop Radio play: 17

One of trends I have noticed in pop music this year seems to be boy bands that play “real rock instruments.” The two breakthrough acts of this genre seem to be Rixton, and 5 Seconds of Summer (5Sos).

Who thought of the name 5 Seconds of Summer? If summer lasted 5 seconds the winter coat industry would be thrilled. 

I can't stop dancing. I'm so cold.

Rixton sounds like a poor man version of Maroon 5 during the sell out years. I’ll deal with Rixton in another review, but this time I’ll take a look at 5Sos and see why they are huge.

5Sos seem to get popular from being on tour with this generation boy band One Direction. In a similar way that One Direction got huge they release a single, “She Looks So Perfect” to moderate pop success, and release an EP with it. “She Looks So Perfect” isn’t bad song, but the underwear line always makes me chuckle. What girl want to know what brand underwear you wear?  The underwear is telling itself that this job, stinks.  

The EP was a best seller, and the band began releasing singles from it. The band  has been on tour with One Direction here in the United States. I can only imagine the screaming fans being able to break glass.

 

5Sos includes the necessary good looks to be a huge boy band, and dumb Twitter tag from their fan army. I’m waiting for a band to call themselves the #weiners or #MoneyPatrol. Just stop it, already.  

This brings me to their second hit single, “Amnesia”. If it is up tempo like the last song of theirs, I’ll be a little more forgiving. My expectations are a little low given their boy band stigma. Please, don't misuse the word, "Amnesia" as an easy boy band breakup title. 

Well this was a ballad, a really bad ballad.

5Sos seem to change their sound from a pop punk band to a white guy with an acoustic guitar. 

Want to hear some pop song chords? Yes!

Production wise it sticks with an acoustic guitar playing throughout the song with keyboards coming in at the chorus.  I find this incredibly boring to listen too. It makes Sam Smith sound like the 2 Chainz of the pop world compare to this song. 

5Sos lead vocalist, Luke Hemmings ( I had to Wikipedia that information) is pretty boring here. He takes the song with serious vocal intentions, but some of the lyrics he sings are a bit silly. Vocally he seems to be struggling at the chorus and at the bridge to me ,as he seems to be running out of breath upon repeated listens.  The bridge you can hear his voice cracking at that very end. 

I drove by all the places we used to hang out getting wasted

This line tells me Luke isn’t over the relationship at all. Why puking at a place where you drank too much gives you good memories is beyond me?

I thought about our last kiss, how it felt the way you tasted

Did it taste like booze and desperation? That is what I am seeing so far, 5sos.

And even though your friends tell me you're doing fine.

She has clearly moved on. Her friends are trying to keep your crazy antics away from her. Not even an acoustic song, and even a crappy one can save you now.

Are you somewhere feeling lonely even though he's right beside you?

When he says those words that hurt you, do you read the ones I wrote you?

She is over you. I highly doubt she is reading your letters, moron.

Sometimes I start to wonder, was it just a lie?
If what we had was real, how could you be fine?

'Cause I'm not fine at all

Get over it! She isn’t interested in you anymore, and the guy could be a jerk. Honestly it is not important to you anymore since you are out of the relationship. 

I remember the day you told me you were leaving
I remember the make-up running down your face

He remembers the breakup clearly even down to mundane details. I actually like this line. It provides a nice amount of visual imagery to a pop song.

And the dreams you left behind you didn't need them
Like every single wish we ever made

The dreams of this couple had are gone; however, I am taking the optimistic approach. Dreams and goals can change  in the short term and long term. She had her own dreams that didn’t involve you, so in her mind it is not a complete lost. The same advice could be said of the narrator. There is no reason to loathe on the relationship.

I wish that I could wake up with amnesia
And forget about the stupid little things

Time heals all wounds. Don't do something crazy.

Don't do it, Luke!

“Hey, put down the hammer, Luke!” Causing memory loss isn’t going to fix anything and in fact will make your life worse.  “Stop hitting your head off the wall!” Besides depending on the concussion you’ll still remember the relationship even if you don’t remember hitting your head.  

Don’t mention “Little things” You make want to have amnesia for that One Direction song. That song is truly awful.

Like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you
And the memories I never can escape

See the brain works great when you don’t cause head injuries, 5Sos. Take  it as a lesson. 

The pictures that you sent me they're still living in my phone

Who sends pictures through multimedia messages anymore? The self deleting messages are the popular thing now with teens. I found your pictures from the iCloud hack too, so in case you need a copy let me know.

 I'll admit I feel alone
And all my friends keep asking why I'm not around

 Good to hear you have a good support system of friends, but I tell them you need to be protected from hardware tools after hearing that chorus. It is for your own good.

If today I woke up with you right beside me
Like all of this was just some twisted dream
I'd hold you closer than I ever did before

It sounds like you were a bit too close from verse 1 interpretation. A little distance isn’t the worst thing you know. 

Cause I'm not fine at all
No, I'm really not fine at all
Tell me this is just a dream
'Cause I'm really not fine at all

Simple answer is this is not a dream. The long answer is this was a test created by pop song writers’ monkeys ,who wanted an answer to what amnesia is. They suffer amnesia themselves after attempting to pole vault the Empire State Building. In their research on amnesia somehow heart break and hardware tools got mixed in there.  

Overall it is not the best song by them; however, it is a little more detail than say the average boy band song about a breakup. The song concept is just plain silly to me. The song musically is boring to me, and honestly I can’t wait for it to be finished. The grand conclusion I get out of this song is the guy is messed up in the head from other concussions he suffered. His only response to make himself feel better is by  having another concussion. I’ll see where they go from here, but I expect to hear more from them.

Production: Just bland. Not as boring as “Say Something” from earlier this year, but this makes a close second for least interesting produced song.

Vocals: Not desirable.

Lyrics: A little bit deeper than the average pop song about a breakup, but the chorus is a mess. 

I'm going to have, "Amnesia" and never listen to this song ever again. It is going to be forgotten hit song in 6 months.

Final score: (2/5)

This song was "pitifully" awful, guys. Let's release more of this stuff.

Here is a remix of the song by Mike Rizzo.

http://soundcloud.com/mikerizzonyc/5-seconds-of-summer-amnesia-mike-rizzo-radio-mix-112-bpm