Heralded by the antagonistically funky title track,
Paramore's sixth studio album, 2023's
This Is Why, feels like the band is bending time, merging the emo-punk of their youth with the hard-won pop craftsmanship they've embraced as adults. Produced by
Carlos de la Garza, the album arrives on the heels of a five-year hiatus for the group, following the exhaustive touring and recording schedule that took them from 2013's
Paramore through 2017's
After Laughter. Notably, it marks the end of the group's initial contract that singer
Hayley Williams signed when she was still just a teenager. Darkly serendipitous, the group's hiatus also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of bleak reflection but one which also gave the band's core trio of
Williams, guitarist
Taylor York, and drummer
Zac Farro time to refocus. In
Williams' case, it also gave her the space to record two solo albums. Those albums found her pushing the creative envelope of her sound, embracing an arty, experimental style that still made room for poetic, confessional lyrics. It's a balancing act she and
Paramore also continue to perfect here, albeit with a much tougher, rock-oriented approach.
If
After Laughter, with its '80s
Tom Tom Club-esque new wave synths, was a buoyant evocation of pop renewal,
This Is Why is its dark, post-punk corollary.
Williams has always been good at transforming her anger into pop catharsis, burning off high emotions like karma in the process. Back in the early aughts, it was a way of dealing with the tense creative and personal dynamics within the band. Here, she wrestles with her anxieties over our increasingly fractious political climate, as on the aforementioned title track, or takes aim at the sensationalist media cycle on "The News." These kinetic anthems are built around
York and
Farro's beautifully dissonant, percussively swinging guitar and drum interplay, a sound that brings to mind the angular late-'70s disco punk of
Gang of Four (
Bloc Party was purportedly another inspiration).
There's a candid honesty to the album as
Williams turns her gaze inwards, admitting to her own stubborn failings, as on the haunting "Thick Skull." This balance between aggressive punk dynamism and bold self-reflection can be thrilling, as on the driving "You First," a
War-era-
U2-sounding song in which
Williams admits she might be her own worst enemy, singing "It turns out I'm living in a horror film, where I'm both the killer and the final girl." Yet more nuanced moments pop up elsewhere as on the languid "Big Man Little Dignity" and the euphoric "Crave," songs that marry '80s
Fleetwood Mac romanticism with dusky shoegaze atmospherics. It often feels like every
Paramore album marks a new beginning for the band. Just when you think they've hit an artistic plateau, they take another creative leap into the unknown, only to return with what feels like a deeper, more heartfelt statement of who they are. With
This Is Why,
Paramore underline that notion, pulling the artistic and emotional threads of their career into a cohesive, ardent whole. ~ Matt Collar
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