(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Lately, Paramore singer Hayley Williams dove headfirst into her solo career and took to the air with a huge smile on her face.
On his recent album of 20 tracks, Death of the ego during a bachelorette party, Williams has gently pulled back the inky tentacles of the band she’s led since she was 14 and discovered exactly who she is behind the facade of rage. This is his third solo album so far, but it’s undoubtedly the most brutal, yet confident, in his discography. Take “Ice In My OJ,” the album opener, which sees the singer shouting “I’m in a band!” » over a looped guttural distortion which, somehow, transforms into a catchy chorus.
Despite this foray into the world of indie, there was a time when Williams lived and breathed the pop-punk band. If we go back half a decade to the strange placidity of the first summer of Covid, Williams found herself with more time than usual to wield a reflective canvas. Around that time, she took to Twitter to reveal her top five Paramore songs, a task that many Paramore fans would spend agonizing hours attempting without success.
The list Williams posted seemed to suffer from recency bias, as it was almost entirely composed of songs from the 2017 pop album, After the laughteran album as jovial as it is nihilistic, catchy and laudable but often criticized for the Nashville group’s alleged diversion from more hardcore experimentation.
Starting at number five on her first list, Williams specifically chose the live version of “I Caught Myself”, a song that can be heard in the background of a ball gown scene in the vampire phenomenon series, Dusk. Although it wasn’t released as Paramore’s lead single on the soundtrack, “I Caught Myself” is as fierce and delicious as you’d expect from the alternative stalwarts. Turning away from his more rock roots, Williams’ fourth choice was After the laughter “Rose-Colored Boy” and his third was “Pool,” two songs that resonate with the bristling high notes of a strange delirium.
“Hard Times,” a track that has since been covered by longtime collaborator David Byrne, whose vocal affectations were initially modeled after, took the all-important second place. The deceptive words ruminate on suicide in Hamlet style while a fearsome bass shakes its hips and shakes its head. It was right behind “Told You So,” a lesser-known track from 2017 that originally came with a fabulously stylish music video.
As always, Twitter was insatiable, expecting more from the redhead than its highly biased list offered. She was happy to oblige, but not without specifying that “the last two Paramore albums [at the time] we are our best, without question. Another hoppy song ranks fifth on the new list, “Ain’t It Fun,” which sees Williams’ soaring vocals mingling with a full gospel choir, paying homage to his Christian upbringing.
His fourth choice is the heartbreaking “Last Hope,” which paints a picture of perseverance despite all-consuming depression. However, the third choice is the oft-overlooked “Fast In My Car” from 2013’s self-titled album, which sees Williams’ vocals take on a more robust edge while Zac Farro’s drumming moves steadily forward. Some 13 songs later comes Williams’ second choice, “Crazy Girls,” which follows a more narrative lyricism than the group was accustomed to. A24 completely slept on the crazy psychosis that the singer managed to convey alone in her voice.
So, by putting After the laughter aside, which Paramore track has the singer said is her all-time favorite? True to form, Williams went against the grain and chose “Future (live),” the final track from their 2013 self-titled album. It’s a song that many people skip, mainly because of that long pause in the middle where the band just lets the silence hang. But on the stripped-down version, Williams delivers a line that hits hard: “I write the future / I leave a key here / Something won’t always be missing / You won’t always feel emptier.” » It seems like she saw everything coming before anyone else.
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