热血青春 (2018)

Youngblood is the third studio album by Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer. The album was initially set to be released on 22 June 2018, but was later brought forward to 15 June. Four singles were released in support of the album: "Want You Back", "Youngblood", "Valentine" and "Lie to Me". The album was released to positive reviews, with critics praising the lyrical maturity and the sound change from their previous work. In support of the album, the band embarked on the Meet You There Tour.

As well as appearing on a multitude of weekly and 2018 and 2019 year-end charts over several countries and receiving multiple certifications, the album's title track, "Youngblood", impacted the ARIA decade-end chart (2010–2019), which ranks the most popular songs of the decade, at number thirty-seven. In the ARIA Australian decade-end chart (2010–2019), ranking the most popular songs of the decade by Australian artists, "Youngblood" ranked at number four. "Youngblood" sold over five million adjusted copies and is the most streamed Australian song of all time on Apple Music. According to ARIA certifications,"Youngblood" is the eleventh best-selling single in Australian history. Youngblood was the most-streamed Australian album of 2018. In February 2020, the band were honored in the APRA AMCOS' The 1,000,000,000 List, for "Youngblood" having been streamed over 1 billion times.

Background and recording

Following the conclusion of the Sounds Live Feels Live World Tour on 5 October 2016, the band took off the remainder of the year as a break, before starting the writing process for their new album in the beginning of 2017. Throughout 2016, the band had been teasing new material from the album. On 1 February, drummer Ashton Irwin posted on Snapchat that he was writing a new song, which was followed by a clip posted by bassist Calum Hood and guitarist Michael Clifford, where a brief snippet of a drum beat can be heard. A month later, new songs were registered on different publishing sites, crediting the band members, along with collaborators Bonnie McKee and John Feldmann. The song "Meet You There", which was released as a bonus track on the deluxe edition, was however written in late 2016. The last song written for the album was "Want You Back" in late 2017.

Guitarist Michael Clifford said of the process, "It's taking a really long time to perfect the new sound and direction we're taking. I think the reason it's taken so long is because we haven't just wanted to get it to a place where we're happy […] We want it to be perfect."

The album was almost exclusively recorded in Los Angeles, CA, primarily at Conway Recording Studios.

Promotion

5SOS III Promotional Tour

Prior to the album's release, the band embarked on the worldwide promotional 5SOS III Tour, a four-leg tour which took place at 26 intimate venues. The tour sold out within approximately 3 minutes, with the critics praising it as "a nice teaser for what promises to be a much larger-scale fall tour." The tour began on 20 March 2018 and ended on 6 June.