It’s been a few weeks since f5ve’s debut album SEQUENCE 01 released on May 5, 2025. My first listen was while I was working out, and before I listened to PinkPantheress’s Fancy That (one of my fave albums released this year, so good).
It’s a fantastic album, but my fave song is still “Magic Clock” 🙈. I was hoping there would be another track that had me in a chokehold like “Magic Clock” but there wasn’t 😭. That song is a 10/10 and everything else on here was like an 8 when it came to my most enjoyed songs.
There are some weird moments, like “Firetruck” but even it’s a 7. “Lettuce” is like a 5. You can’t get me to care about that song, full offense. But about half of the album if you’ve been following f5ve the last like 6 months to a year, you already heard these songs and knew they would be here. Let’s look at it track by track.
I love the intro “Initiate Sequence 01” because it’s short and to the point. Segways perfectly into our first track, “Underground”, which is our first appearance of a song previously released and finding its permanent home on SEQUENCE 01.
“Underground” is great. The beat is upbeat and addicting. Love the choreo. The music video itself is entertaining. Perfect to dance to and what comes to mind when I think of what makes Jpop stand out. It’s gotta be a little weird and campy and f5ve has that down.
But the thing with including songs we’ve already heard, they’ve been out for months, and you pretty much know if you like them or not by this point. There are times when I’ve changed my mind on old songs, but the songs I’ve already heard that were also on this album, I didn’t change my mind on. For better or worse.
And like with “Magic Clock”, my thoughts are still the same as in my Quick Thoughts article. Which is good but, yeah…
Same with “UFO”. It’s still insanely good. One of my favorite music videos I’ve seen in a while. Probably my fave of f5ve’s easily. Highly recommend (along with “Magic Clock” obviously).
I will say I love that because they released a lot of these songs as singles, we do have visuals to go along with everything. So if this is your first time getting into them, you have everything in one place. That’s the best part of having everything on one album like this. It makes it easier to listen. Instead of jumping around with different albums.
I still can’t get into “Firetruck” unfortunately. It’s fine. I don’t hate it. I actually like the instrumental. It’s something with the flow and lyrics. The chorus isn’t catchy or punchy enough for me. Something’s missing. But it’s different, and I give it extra points for how jarring it is. I’d rather something be different than boring.
“Lettuce” is boring. There’s potential here, but it’s also missing something. It’s fine but nothing I gotta revisit.
Awwww yeaaaaaaah my second favorite song off the album. My most anticipated release when I saw Kesha was going to be the feature on it.
I love Kesha’s part. Also short and sweet, but it fits incredibly well into the rest of the song. It’s what I want out of “Firetruck”. There’s a chill but confidence vibe carried throughout the song. “Firetruck” has this stutter and awkwardness to it that I can’t get past.
I do hate that “Sugar Free Venom” is so short. It feels like we could have had another 40 or so seconds on it. That would have been perfect, but oh well. Still slaps.
There are different turning points on SEQUENCE 01 sound wise, and after “Sugar Free Venom”, we meet a difference side of f5ve. Things are slowing down a little bit. There’s more of a focus on the harmonies between the members. I love this track run.
With a title like “Bow Chika Wow Wow”, this should be the worst song on the album. It’s not. My third fave. It follows a similar set-up to “Sugar Free Venom” in structure. I love the low-quality footage and early 2010s visuals in the mini music video.
The cutest outfits are here in the mini music video for “Jump”. I love a velour Juicy Couture moment. Rui is doin the damn thing on this song. I’m loving the high notes.
“Real Girl” is the last song on SEQEUNCE 01, and it’s a great ending track. “Jump” slowed things down a bit, and “Real Girl” speeds things back up a bit.
The mini music video for this one looks like a music video in your head when you’re on a long drive or flight somewhere, and you’re looking out the window, and you just start thinking of shit, lol. I love how this is filmed. I love the styling. I can’t get over how good this team is at executing these visuals in such an entertaining way.
It took me a bit longer to write this review because in my first listen I felt a bit underwhelmed. And I needed to figure out why. After a few more listens and thinking about it more, it was more by the lack of “new” music. I’m over that now, lol.
About half the album had songs we hadn’t heard before, so that’s not too bad considering how much music the group has been releasing over the last year. It’ll be on repeat the rest of the year. At this point, I’m ready for the tour.
I was thinking about microdose reviews, and she updated with her thoughts on the album! You can watch that here. I agree with a lot of her points. She did a better job at talking about the meshing of Millennial and Gen Z aesthetics than I did, lol. And talking about references to old Jpop as well.
f5ve is one of the most interesting groups out presently, and I’m so excited to see what else they have planned for the rest of the year.
What are y’alls thoughts on f5ve and SEQUENCE 01? Tell me all your thoughts in the comments. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Bluesky, & Instagram.
Update: 7/29/25: I received my album in the jewel case and a t-shirt! I got an email saying it was shipped on July 21st. The shirt is super soft, and there are photocard in the CD case itself. I didn’t take pictures of it because my order arrived late at night, lol.
Take care!
Ash💫