"Dark Side" is a song by American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

band R5. It was released on February 1, 2016 as the fifth and final single from ''

Sometime Last Night ''Sometime Last Night'' is the second and final studio album by American pop rock band R5. It was released on July 10, 2015 by Hollywood Records. The album was announced alongside a tour, which began in June 2015 and ended in December 2016. Five ...

''. It was written by

Ross Lynch Ross Shor Lynch (born December 29, 1995) is an American actor, singer, and musician. He was the lead vocalist of the pop rock band R5 and is one half of the band the Driver Era (with his brother Rocky Lynch). As an actor, he rose to recogniti ...

Riker Lynch Riker Anthony Lynch (born November 8, 1991) is an American singer and actor. He was previously cast as Jeff, one of the members of the Dalton Academy Warblers singing group, on Fox's television series '' Glee''. He finished in second place on ...

Rocky Lynch ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess ...

and

Ellington Ratliff Ellington Lee Ratliff (born April 14, 1993) is an American drummer and actor. He is best known as the drummer of pop rock band R5, which was active from 2009 until 2018, and as a contributor to The Driver Era. Early life Ellington Lee Ratli ...

, and produced by Rocky and Matt Wallace.

Background and release

In an interview to '' Billboard'', Ross said that "Dark Side" was the first song written for the album and it generated inspiration for the band to write other songs. He said: "I think it was at that moment that we realized we actually have the capability and the skill set to just write the whole record. And then we just kept writing songs and beating off songs that we previously had. We had a checklist; We'd be like, 'Alright, 'Dark Side' is better than this song, so it'll take that song's spot, and then this song can take this other song's spot.' We basically worked our way down and replaced the whole record". The funky guitar riffs came about with a bass line from Rocky, then the band sprinkled a little synth on top". It was written by

and

, and produced by Rocky and Matt Wallace. The song was released on February 1, 2016. To Maria Ciezak of The Aquarian, Riker commented that the band wanted the song as a single from the beginning of the album: "Everyone on our crew, our friends, our fans, everybody kept telling us "Dark Side" is the one you have to make the single! We all love it, and we know it’s a fan favorite, so it’s been going over really well".

Reception

"Dark Side" received positive reviews from critics. Jamee-Beth Livingston of Breakaway Daily said the song brings "a deeper level of honesty and realness" in their songwriting. She also said the band "giving in to bad temptations because they usually end up making good stories". Tim Sendra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

was positive and said that "Dark Side" "has a loose-limbed bounce that's missing from the pro tracks, the disco throwback". Gary Graff of '' Billboard'' was positive about the funk-theme direction, highlighting the other songs of the album, and compared it to songs of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

. Katrina M. of Sputinik Music was positive and said the song is reversed, bright and cheerful. Katy Amjs of Music Is The Home For You Pain said she was surprised by the disco rhythm and commented: "Unlike its title indicates, the track is fast paced from the first beat and maintains its energy throughout". She also said that the song convincing the listener to get up and dance along. Emery Columna of Maaf Box said that "Dark Side" is the key that opens the traditional rock door that held the R5 within the predictable. He also said: "

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

is a clue to where R5 can go musically to break the evil spell some riticshave unfairly cast upon this groovy band".

Music video

The "Dark Side" music video was released on March 10, 2016 and directed by band members. The video was recorded by R5 with a GoPro and contains scenes of the Sometime Last Night Tour, showing concerts by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, Australia and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, meet with fans and behind the scenes of travel. Ross said the band chose not to record a studio video clip, because they wanted their own vision of the before and after shows to show for the fans.

Release history

References

{{authority control 2015 songs R5 (band) songs Hollywood Records singles 2015 singles