Paramore’s ‘This is Why’ – Review
Paramore at the Royal Albert Hall, image from Wikimedia Commons https://www.flickr.com/photos/raph_ph/35519998662/
The release of the American rock band Paramore’s sixth studio album This is Why earlier this month is a pleasant reminder of their impressive longevity; they span almost two decades as a group. Yet this is not the same Paramore who introduced themselves to the world with their 2005 debut album All We Know is Falling. In the wake of various line-up changes and lawsuits, the journey has hardly been a linear one. And yet, for the band’s current members, Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro, there appears to be no sign of slowing down.
Signed to American record company Fuelled by Ramen, the band have long been compared to contemporaries such as Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco, gravitating towards the same pop-rock sounds and enjoying similar paths to stardom during the mid-2000s. Yet of these bands, arguably only Paramore has remained consistent in its artistic development. Whilst Fall Out Boy recently made a promising comeback with the single Love from the Other Side, a song which feels like an overt nod to its golden years of Folie à Deux and Infinity on High, its recent albums have been an unfortunately clumsy attempt at incorporating radio-friendly synthpop and electropop, meeting with mixed reviews from critics. Panic! At the Disco has endured a similarly regrettable decline, with the release of 2022’s Viva Las Vengeance and its uninspired and jarring lyricism signalling a band struggling to rehash the success of its monumental debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, which has since cemented itself into the pop-punk canon. It is almost poetic that just over two weeks after the sole member of Panic! At the Disco, Brendon Urie, announced his band’s imminent disbandment, Paramore would successfully release its sixth studio album to widespread critical acclaim and fan praise.
This is Why continues the growing deviation from Paramore’s older sound – a transition first seen in their 2017 album After Laughter, which swapped out the dark, heavy guitar familiar to fans for unapologetically 80s synth and New Wave inspirations. After Laughter drew some initial criticisms that the band had remodelled itself into a pop group and thus the “old Paramore” had vanished without a trace. Evidently, such fears have not fazed the band members, with Williams stating in a recent interview with Billboard, “We don’t want to be a nostalgia band.” Although the lead singer has returned to the flame-coloured hair that is now almost emblematic of “classic” Paramore, it is evident with this new record that the band seeks to continue its separation from its teenage origins.
Whilst This is Why does draw back onto the darker sounds reminiscent of Paramore’s earlier work, the resulting record displays a band that has evolved into a much more sophisticated group. In tracks such as Running Out of Time and C’est Comme Ça, the feverish guitar and occasional psychedelic moment create addictively fresh hooks, which have become one of the band’s greatest strengths. Meanwhile, the moody bass clarinet and flute that open Big Man, Little Dignity encapsulate the spacey feel, with which the trio continue to experiment across the album. The second track The News is perhaps the closest song to the punchy and biting sound regularly associated with Paramore’s earlier tracks like Misery Business or Emergency, brought to life by Williams’ powerhouse vocals. The closing track, Thick Skull, is perhaps the most exciting sign of what is to come from Paramore, however, building on the album’s running threads of isolation and agoraphobia into a cathartic baring of vulnerability. Whilst I felt some of the album’s songs were relatively steady and unassuming, Thick Skull is a potent finale to This is Why that perfectly captures the best of Paramore’s artistic growth over the years.
All in all, this is an enjoyable album, and one that I have already revisited a couple of times since its release. Whilst I admittedly gravitate towards Paramore’s older works, as a dedicated listener over the years there is a certain satisfaction that comes with growing up alongside bands that are also constantly growing and evolving in their sounds. Whether Paramore will settle into this new-found post-punk style for its next project remains to be seen. But wherever the band chooses to gravitate next is guaranteed to be as exciting as ever.