For the first time, when the members of Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer started to create their sixth album, they already knew what they wanted it to look and feel like.

"When you can see something in your head, it's more inspiring to get there," guitarist Michael Clifford says. "You're not shooting in the dark like, 'I wonder what this is gonna be like?' You have an idea, and you can drive the ship there."

The result was "Everyone's A Star," which dropped Nov. 14. Arguably their most meta album yet, the 12 tracks — plus four bonus tracks on a deluxe edition that dropped Nov. 17 — discuss fame, self-destruction and the "boyband" culture they've at times rejected and embraced since the group formed in 2011.

The album is less about the personal inspirations that defined their prev

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