Tennessee-based Paramore, fronted by emo-influenced teenage vocalist
Hayley Williams, crafted the sparkling punk-pop of
All We Know Is Falling (2005) and especially
Riot (2007), the album that turned them into stars thanks to
the pounding and screamed Misery Business,
also containing the power-ballad We Are Broken.
A film soundtrack later included another hit, Decode.
Brand New Eyes (2009) is a blander collection that invested more on
arrangements than on actual melodies (The Only Exception,
Ignorance).
After replacing the guitarist and the drummer (Josh and Zac Farro), and hooking up with
producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Paramore adopted keyboards and sound effects
on Paramore (2013), resulting in sprightly and catchy ditties such as
Now, Still Into You and the tapping Ain't It Fun, no matter how
derivative of dance-pop bands of the 1970s such as
Blondie and the Cars.
After Laughter (Fueled by Ramen, 2017) continued the unimaginative imitation of dance-pop of the early 1980s, as instructed by producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen:
Go-Go's-style euphoria (Rose-Colored Boy),
Fleetwood Mac-ian synthetic refrains (Forgiveness), etc.
But generic bubblegum products such as Hard Times and
Caught in the Middle are just painful to listen to.
Hayley Williams debuted solo with the album Petals for Armor (2020),
de facto a collaboration with her Paramore bandmate Taylor York,
a hodgepodge of synth-pop, neosoul and dance with plenty of drum-machines and electronic keyboards.
It is hard to justify a 15-song album that has only one decent song,
the single Simmer.
Her follow-up Flowers for Vases / Descansos (2021) had instead a spare
folkish arrangement (but with a glossy production), inspired during the covid pandemic by Taylor Swift's "quarantine album" Folkore.
Liberated from the electronic arrangements, Williams can display a fine interplay with the rhythm of the songs (in My Limb and Asystole) and a knack for serene atmospheres (in Good Grief and Trigger). Best is probably the ethereal piano ballad KYRH.
Paramore returned after six years with This Is Why (2023), an
embarrassing album of dance-pop.
The funk-soul sections of This Is Why evoke
Earth, Wind & Fire and the ending mocks the Village People.
You First is an amateurish imitation of Blondie.
The band was clearly on hiatus. Meanwhile, Hayley Williams made a 180 degree U-turn
on her third solo album, the 20-song Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (2025),
whose early songs were originally released as gifts to buyers of her hair-dye product.
Despite the loud and sometimes grandiose arrangements,
it mostly sounds like an imitation of 2025's superstar Taylor Swift (Ice in my OJ, Parachute) with occasional detours into intellectual songwriting (the dream-pop ballad True Believer) and into post-emo neurosis
(Mirtazapine, a catchy poppy version of Nine Inch Nails).
