The five members of Why Don’t We (Jonah Marais from Minnesota, Corbyn Besson from Virginia, Daniel Seavey from Oregon, Jack Avery from Pennsylvania and Zach Herron from Texas) were hard at work on their own budding careers—building fandoms through viral videos and nationwide influencer tours—when they joined forces in 2016. Firm believers in the power of brand awareness, they flooded the market with five EPs in their first year. “With this new generation, content is key,” Jonah Marais told Billboard. “They just want tons of music to listen to and videos to see.” But they quickly hungered to record a more formal body of work. Enter: 8 Letters. Full of inventive, modern twists on classic Top 40 flavours—there are R&B flirtations (“Choose”), folksy serenades (“In Too Deep”), ballads (“8 Letters”) and electro-pop anthems (“Hooked”)—it’s polished, buoyant and stadium-ready.