Paramore

One Liner: Pop punk and emo heroes coming back for another round

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, pop punk, pop rock, power pop, emo, new wave
Home: Franklin, TN

Poster Position: 1
Both Weekends.  Sunday.

Thoughts:  Totally off my radar.  I mean, I had heard of them before they hit this poster, but just a band that somehow slipped entirely through my periphery.  For example, their top song on Spotify is new to me.  Somehow it has 477.1 million streams, and was released in 2013, and yet I have definitely never heard it before.  Which just seems really weird when I am an alternative rock kind of guy.  No clue why.

Their most recent album was back in 2017 (which is interesting, right?  Where is the new music?) and I reviewed it back then.  

Paramore - After Laughter.  Paramore is a funny band.  In my mind, I think that they are a lot harder than they really are - pop punk with some screaming.  Maybe their older tunes were a little bit harder, but now this stuff is pure pop rock ready for all the dancing you can fit into your pants.  Hell, just sitting here listening to this album again I'm grooving around in my desk chair and unable to stop myself from thrusting my head forward in an uncomfortable turtle bird dance.  Just try listening to "Rose-Colored Boy" and keeping still.  If you can do it, I'll give you ONE AMERICAN NICKEL next time we see each other in real life.  Unless I don't have one, in which case you can get one for yourself and then remember that I gave it to you each time you see it.

FYI, their Spotify bio right now is a terrible thing probably written by a PR firm and it makes me want to die, but the current playcount listed by Spotify means they are the greatest band in all of history.  Literally, it says "6,087,1242,351,093" [sic] monthly listeners.  I mean, 60 TRILLION monthly listeners is pretty amazing.  Hot damn.  Thinking this was a typo, I checked Taylor Swift's count, and she has 315 TRILLION monthly listens.  Holy Hannah.  Anyway, I digress.
These tunes have a little worldliness to them, in the way Graceland or Vampire Weekend have a lilt of world music poking into them, but overall it is power pop rock stuff that is crazy catchy.  The top song is one that is reminiscent of their prior big hit ("Ain't It Fun," which is a legitimately fun track), the album opener, called "Hard Times."  [now at 308.4 million streams].

Like I said, power pop with guitar.  Snappy as hell, very fun, even if the music behind it is pretty basic strum and drum 80's disco-fied rock.  I enjoy it.  These are the best songs on this album, others are slow and maudlin (looking at you, "26") full of violin swells and lyrics about dreaming.  But other tracks, like "Caught in the Middle," which are like funky No Doubt outtakes, are more fun again."

Prior to that 2017 album, they had been releasing music since 2005.  Hayley Williams is the lead singer and the one you always hear about when people talk about this band.  Drummer Zac Farro was also a founding member, and the only other OG member still in the band.  Guitarist Taylor York was a high school friend of the others and joined in 2007.  Their first album apparently did really well in the UK, but it wasn't until the sophomore album that they blew up.

Williams moved from Mississippi to Tennessee and met Josh and Zac Farro at a thing for home schooled students.  They were making music in various bands - Williams was actually already signed to Atlantic as a solo artist.  The label wanted to turn her into a pop princess, but she fought for the right to be in a rock band.  When the band was originally formed, Zac Farro was literally 12 years old.  The band name came from the maiden name of the mother of one of the original bass players, but they also liked the idea of the similar word meaning "secret lover."

Just before that first album, Jeremy Davis (bass) left the band, and it apparently devastated the band enough that the cover art of the first album is related (showing an empty couch with the shadow of someone walking away?).  But then he came back later.  But then they kicked him out again later.  But then they got him back again.

2005's All We Know Is Falling definitely has some of those screamo moments that I must have been thinking of when I thought they were super hard.  "My Heart" has Hayley singing pretty stuff up front, but in the background there is definitely someone shredding their vocal chords.  The top track from that album is "Pressure," with 52.1 million streams.

Yesssssss, look at those haircuts.  Jamming in an industrial space!  Chains!  Super skinny jeans!  Kick moves!  This is a very perfect early-oughts emo rock video.  Good, not great, song.  But the disc got them a slot on the Warped Tour!  Sounds right.

2007's Riot! was where they hit their stride.  The band was nominated for Best New Artist after this (lost to Amy Winehouse, which, sure), and the album went Platinum in the US.  You can tell that they are signed to the Fueled by Ramen imprint, as this has a little bit of that Fall Out Boy sound (and some oddly long song titles).  They had some troubles here, in part because the rest of the band was aggravated at the media's focus on Hayley Williams.  The album has their biggest track too - "Misery Business" with 521.4 million streams.

That track rings a bell for sure, I think they still play that one on the radio.  That girl kind of overreacted about her hair getting cut off, but that lady is really not very nice.  But then I absolutely did not expect that the resolution of her being a rude person would be that Hayley would reach into mean lady's dress and remove her nipple covers from inside of her bra.  Very surprising fight move.  Never saw that in the halls of Austin High.  "crushcrushcrush" and "That's What You Get" were also big hits from this album, but they don't right a bell.  "When It Rains" kind of has a Taylor Swift vibe.  "Fences" has a poppy fun to it.  

2009 brought us Brand New Eyes and a few more big hits.  The sound is pretty much the same, but their fame was exploding with an opening slot for No Doubt, an opening slot for Green Day, and an MTV Unplugged episode taping.  The biggest track on the album was "The Only Exception" with 301.2 million streams.

Lovely tune.  Much less aggressive than the rest of the album.  Almost feels like a cover song.  But also, lyrically, its a great tune too.  "Brick by Boring Brick" seems like a good live tune that includes a soccer chant-sounding refrain.  "Looking Up" is a low-streamer that made me look up from work to check it out, I like that one.  But, again, some trouble in paradise.  Right around now, the Farro brothers left the band, with Josh saying that the band was a "manufactured product of a major-label" and that everyone else was just riding Hayley Williams' coattails.  (which, uh, duh.  You are a super generic guitar player who sounds like anyone else on the planet, and she's a star.  No shit, kid).

2013's Paramore was the first to hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and "Ain't It Fun" is definitely the song I know this band for.  Won the Best Rock Song Grammy in 2014.  Strangely, "Still Into You" has more streams, but I think you should hear the winning song.  349 million streams.

Goofy, but that video made me grin.  Fun tune - some poppy, discofied rock and roll.  You literally cannot tell that the original guitarist is gone here.  "Future" has a good extended, sludgy jam in it.

Wikipedia claims that a sixth album is in the works right now, so we might get a new disc to try out before they show up in the fall.  I'd definitely go see them, but being that they are right before either the Chilis or Kacey, I'm not sure that I actually will.  We shall see.