Open up your Brand New Eyes, because Paramore is back and on tour as of October 2! The band took a five-year hiatus as Hayley Williams released two solo albums, Petals for Armor and Flowers for Vases, but have returned with an album called This Is Why.
Titled for the album, the single This Is Why focuses on the lack of empathy in the world during and after the pandemic. As Williams says herself, “This Is Why was the very last song we wrote for the album. To be honest, I was so tired of writing lyrics, but Taylor convinced Zac and I both that we should work on this last idea. What came out of it was the title track for the whole album.
“It summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last three or four years. You’d think after a global pandemic of fucking biblical proportions and the impending doom of a dying planet, that humans would have found it deep within themselves to be kinder or more empathetic or something.” The single’s chorus, a resounding ‘This is why I never leave the house,’ puts the feeling of frustration at the current state of the world into a simple, albeit poignant sentence.
Paramore was created in Franklin, Tennesee in 2013. A small group consisting of Josh and Zac Farro, Jeremy Davis, and Hayley Williams was the original band, but over the years, that shifted to consist of Zac Farro, Hayley Williams, and Taylor York. Paramore has several albums under its belt including Brand New Eyes, Riot! and After Laughter. The new album, This Is Why, is following in the funky footsteps of After Laughter, if the single is anything to go by. Although there will always be some fans who dislike the step away from pop punk and emo, we welcome the change. Williams’ voice paired with Farro’s drums and York’s guitar will always be something beautiful.
Photo courtesy of Paramore’s Twitter.
