Youngblood

“Youngblood” is the first track off of the same titled album released earlier this year from Australian pop group 5 Seconds of Summer, and is the defining track towards their journey of becoming a more mature band with a more mature sound from their previous releases.

The track tells the story of the ups and downs, push and pulls of a relationship. The band told Genius about the inspiration of the song: “So we made this band when we were pretty young. I think it back, we were looking for something since we were young that was a staple sound for this band. We knew what we were influenced by but we weren’t quite sure how to approach it and create it in a… create something fresh in a way that wouldn’t just be straight up replicating another artist. I think it took time for us to mature musically and in our lives, in general, to come to a point where we could create something like “Youngblood” because “Youngblood” actually has older influences. It’s influenced by Tears for Fears, The Police, Michael Jackson, especially the melodic work, so to get to that point, I would say the moments were just our career, in general, and having a motivation to search for something that was unique to this band.”

The music video for the alternative version of the song has over 125 million views since its release in April 2018. It is simply the band performing the song at a concert. While the official music video that was released in August 2018, only has 46 million views, despite it being more of a story-based video, featuring an elderly Japanese couple who are given a pill and turn back into their younger selves for a day, and are part of a Japanese biker gang. They go to various bars, parks and clubs in Japan reliving their youth. At the end of the video, the couple (still in their younger selves) are sitting down looking at their watches, knowing time will run out. They hold hands and close their eyes. It is not made clear whether they are asleep or whether they pass away in their younger selves.

Release Date: 12th April 2018

Songwriter/s: Andrew Watt, Louis Bell, Ali Tamposi, Ashton Irwin, Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings

Label: Capitol

Music Video Release Date: 2nd August 2018

Music Video Director/s: Frank Borin & Ivanna Borin

Chart Rankings, Awards & Certifications: It went 5x Platinum in Australia, Platinum in the US, UK and Canada, 2x Platinum in New Zealand and Gold in Italy and Belgium. It reached number one in Australia in May 2018, becoming the band’s second number-one single in their home country, where it spent eight consecutive weeks at the top, as well as staying in the top of the New Zealand charts for four weeks.