Paramore, outspoken advocates of the LGBTQ community, dropped their latest single “C’est Comme Ça” on Thursday, January 12. This release follows two other well-received drops from the forthcoming album, “This Is Why” and “The News.” Concerning its message, “C’est Comme Ça” resides in the same vein as the rest of what we’ve seen from This Is Why. Each track pokes and prods at the past few years—including the suffocating feelings of global despondency—in a beautifully un-subtle way.
Roughly translating to “that’s just how it is,” “C’est Comme Ça” is an exciting track containing Paramore’s now-trademark funky guitar licks and complex rhythms, but with an enticingly dark underbelly. Frontwoman Hayley Williams plays with vocal inflections more akin to spoken word poetry than singing. Across the board from the three releases, This Is Why‘s musicality channels the complexity of personal versus political versus social that has so underpinned American (and even global) society over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Where the band has previously written from a largely personal perspective, This Is Why appears to be dipping into unfamiliar territory, still personal but with a bird’s eye view of other perspectives and anguish for the masses. Reflecting on the single, Williams says, “I’m trying to get un-addicted to a survival narrative. The idea of imminent doom is less catastrophic to me than not knowing anything about the future or my part in it. The guys and I are all in much more stable places in our lives than ever before. And somehow that is harder for me to adjust to.”
This Is Why is set to be released February 10 via Atlantic Records with a worldwide tour to follow. This marks their sixth studio album and the fulfillment of the band’s original Atlantic contract that has been so hotly debated through the years within the band itself. Regardless, this new era of Paramore is shaping up to be even more enthralling than any of the band’s previous peaks.
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