Real-world events of the past three years have had an impact on everyone, including Paramore. The Tennessee-based trio’s latest incarnation – following noughties pop-punk and 2017’s new-wave-inspired After Laughter – takes a melodic, reflective tone.
On new album This Is Why, exasperation underpins siren call to the tardy Running Out Of Time, alongside This is Why (‘If you have an opinion, maybe you should shove it’). A hideously familiar collective sense of doom is palpable in The News (‘So far from the front line… I’m safe inside’), but C’est Comme Ca distracts you with Hayley Williams’s revered, searing vocals.
Big Man Little Dignity performs a scathingly satisfying character assassination complete with catchy hook, while Thick Skull holds a mirror to the repetition of mistakes.
Paramore have successfully remoulded the cornerstones of their music not only for the new times we find ourselves in, but also for a personal evolution, and maturity evident across This Is Why.