Naturally, there’s only one-way Australian pop-punk band 5 Seconds of Summer could follow up the release of their latest single “She’s Kinda Hot” and that is with a music video. Luke, Calum, Michael, and Ashton just dropped the official video for their angsty track, and I was pleasantly surprised by its content.
The only word to describe 5 Seconds of Summer’s “She’s Kinda Hot” music video is kooky. The video begins with a series of scenes involving kids who would typically be considered “outcasts:” a gamer, a client in a therapist’s office, and a teen getting picked on by his brothers. Meanwhile, the guys of 5 Seconds of Summer are in a remote garage, building an epic mobile stage/vehicle. Later in the video, the boys ride the vehicle down the street and attract a small crowd as they perform “She’s Kinda Hot” on top of it.
In “She’s Kinda Hot,” the vocals are surprisingly split up relatively evenly between the four band members. Instead of consistently being led by frontman Luke Hemmings and bassist Calum Hood, “She’s Kinda Hot” features lead guitarist Michael Clifford’s and drummer Ashton Irwin’s vocals quite a bit. Irwin, who was rarely featured as a vocalist on 5 Seconds of Summer’s debut album, seriously steps it up on this track and impressively conquers the song’s breakdown all by himself. When listening to this track, I didn’t even realize Ashton had a solo at all, so I was very surprised to see him singing in the music video. However, he truly commanded the screen and did an excellent job with his first major solo.
While 5 Seconds of Summer’s music video is generally fun and captivating, the cartoon effects that continuously pop up on screen are one of my least favorite parts about it. Instead of adding to the video and connecting the theme of the song to the picture on the screen, the graphics distract the viewer and are even a bit childish. The video could have easily done without them and would have had a more profound effect on the viewer if the effects were not present.