The Australian 4-piece band, 5 Seconds of Summer, recently released their first single for the new year, as well as hinting to a new album coming soon. The song, “Complete Mess”, was made available on all major streaming platforms on March 2, 2022. Since then, it has introduced a new aesthetic for the band and their future content. As blue and orange hues slowly fill the group’s social media platforms, fans have been making art to match the vivid theme. The song was teased the week before the release date, which sparked an immediate frenzy online. Spotify has already seen over 7.2 million plays since its release. “Complete Mess” was the very first song to be entirely written and produced by the foursome.
Starting off with dreamy and ethereal tones of a bass, the song slowly begins to build. A call and response style appears when the guitar is introduced. As the two instruments trade off space in the song, the tension is built beautifully and leaves the listener wanting more. Luke Hemmings, the lead singer, breaks the trance of the rhythm with the first couple of lines of the verse. “Caught up in Heaven but your Heaven ain't the same/And I've never been a saint, have I? /This evanescence, always fleeting like a flame/But I'm never one to change, am I?”
The chorus has been stacked with a 4-part harmony and reverb to give a chilling contrast when dropping back down into the verses. For a couple of seconds after the second verse, the drums are given a low pass filter to only allow the low frequencies to come through, which creates a powerful climax to the repeated chorus, “Oh, you make me complete/You make me complete/You make me a complete mess.”
The group’s music video premiered the same day the song was released. Three of
the boys each have a solo while singing about the worthwhile chaos of a relationship. Dressed in formal wear, the band slowly make their way through the desert and run into, what appears to be, an artistic parallel universe. The entire video was filmed in the middle of the desert, referencing to where the song was written.
The four-piece band rented an Airbnb near Joshua Tree, California to relax and write for their next album. As the band tells the story on The Late Late Show with James Corden, they mentioned there was a mix-up with the Airbnb. One of the rooms were occupied by an older gentleman during their stay. The band was upset at first, but soon began to realize the guest was nothing but inspiring.
Calum Hood, the bassist, gave an example of a thoughtful thing the older gentleman did. One night, they were talking about pancakes and then he’s cooking the band pancakes the next morning before their writing session.
The band tells another story about the unexpected guest on the YouTube podcast, The Zach Sang Show. The guest was a regular at the Airbnb and had told the band he raised and cared for all the desert birds outside. It inspired the boys to record the birds and put them on the new album as an ode to the new friend they had made at the Airbnb. The trip ended up being a successful writing session that brought 2021 full-circle as the 10-year anniversary approached the band.
In December, the group celebrated the first decade of being together with a song titled, “2011”. They closed the year with excitement and nostalgia, as the fans enjoyed a livestream concert-meets-movie, The Five Seconds of Summer Show, that also premiered the new single. The drummer of the band, Ashton Irwin, was the last member to join the group in late 2011. They posted a cover of “Teenage Dirtbag” to YouTube as they casually introduced the drummer at the beginning of the video. This completed the 4-piece band as we know them today.
The Australian band has recently started to tie their music together by writing references from their older songs into their new lyrics. The song “2011”, has a reference to their single, “Old Me”. Their new song, “Complete Mess”, has a line that reads, “I learned my lesson when I felt you slip away”, referring to their hit song “Amnesia”, that was released in the summer of 2014.
The new single, “Complete Mess”, has hit several charts since its release earlier this month. It hit number twenty-nine on The Dutch Single Tip Charts and number twelve on the New Zealand Top 40. The Australian Independent Record Label Association is now going on its second week of seeing 5 Seconds of Summer’s new single on their Independent Label Singles. The song immediately made it to the top ten, jumping from the ninth to the third spot. Within two weeks, the music video on YouTube has hit over 3.7 million views and their live performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden now has 203,440 views.
As much as the band has done with this new single, there are a couple of things that could’ve been executed differently for better results. In previous years, the band has been known to break many records and land in some of the biggest named charts. The song, “Complete Mess”, did not do as well as their previous singles. The marketing behind this new release is more than likely the problem. For example, the band and their team should’ve hinted at the new song a month before the release, instead of 5 days before the song was dropped. The official announcement on the group’s Instagram account was made February 25, 2022. Giving enough time for fans and others to hear about the upcoming release would build excitement and, in theory, allow the band’s single to gain more traction. This ripple effect would potentially cause the song to top the charts.
Their “Take My Hand” world tour will span across Europe, North America, and Australia, consisting of 52 total dates. Overall, “Complete Mess” was a powerful song to begin the new year. The group has set the bar high for their unnamed, upcoming album. This year seems like it will be a very busy year for 5 Seconds of Summer. As a life-long fan, I’m definitely not complaining.