Paramore’s New Album Proves They’re a Generation-Defining Band
Beloved rock band Paramore has been in the game for 20 years, soundtracking millennials’ lives from adolescence to adulthood; from Warped Tour parking lots to office cubicles. It’s not just one-sided, though—as Paramore’s fans have grown up, so have lead singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York, and drummer Zac Farro: a trio of outsiders-turned-pop culture icons. And since part of growing up means grappling with the (often fucked-up) world around you, it’s no surprise that the band’s sixth album, This Is Why (Feb. 10), is their most biting, fearless, and aggressive work to date, as Paramore channel their rage into a tenacious call for political action and self-reflection.
They certainly had plenty of material to mine. This Is Why is Paramore’s first album in nearly six years, following 2017’s After Laughter, on which Williams’ impassioned rage was shrewdly mollified by bright-sounding ’80s synth-pop. That record largely looked inward, as Williams ruminated on the depression, anxiety, and loneliness of being in your twenties, albeit with some vibrant instrumentation cushioning the fall. This Is Why drops the candy coating, stirring post-punk, new-wave, and alt-rock into the mix; the band has cited Foals and Bloc Party as influences. The result is a tight, 10-track effort that blends the band’s past eras—from the teen angst of RIOT! all the way to the quiet confidence of Williams’ 2020 solo LP Petals for Armor—and marries nostalgia with the starkness of our 2023 lives.
Title track “This Is Why” highlights the agoraphobia and introversion that can creep up from living in such a politically charged time. “The News” takes that a step further, as Williams sings about the conflict of feeling like she should be doing more than sitting behind a computer digesting countless bad news stories, but knowing she can’t actually do much to change things. On “Big Man, Little Dignity,” the singer aims her frustration at vile, sexist men, singing with an audible eye roll, “You’re so smooth, it’s pitiful / You know you can get away with anything, so that’s exactly what you do.”