I can see this growing on me to A- or settling to B, it’s really decent but I’ve yet to decide if it’s repetitive and samey or not
RELISTEN1: man, I can’t believe my original listen and rank for this is from almost two years ago… wild. Helps put into perspective this big jump— this is the product of a lot of listening and a lot of time. That means a lot of change in myself as a listener. When I first listened, I knew I liked Still Into You and whatever the other well known songs are. I still do, those are solid songs. But the rest of it was kind of formless for me. The earlier albums blurred together, and After Laughter was so different, it almost felt saccharine (This Is Why wasn’t out yet). I liked it, but I almost felt like I wasn’t supposed to, like it was too poppish, too basic.
The past year and change, my perspective has changed substantially. Paramore is the opposite of formless. I stopped hearing angsty screaming and I started hearing genuine, thoughtful, desperate discontent— and then started hearing that shift into… not acceptance, but resolve. I stopped hearing thoughtlessly repeated chord sequences and started hearing clever hooks be explored, I started being pulled in by engaging rhythms and melodies. As I listened, I grew more and more suspicious that Paramore was more than I first realized, until I knew that they were and I just didn’t know by how much. This relisten confirmed and exceeded my expectations. Paramore is excellent, and just super my jam in general. I vibe with their brand, I vibe with their music, I vibe with their lyrics, I vibe with Williams in general (or at least, with what I see of her/read in interviews, whatever that’s worth). It’s solid, it’s all great. Honestly, I could potentially see a future where this is an S-.
The biggest issue is the first two albums. They’re still good, they’re not bad at all, but if I felt they were representative of how I think of Paramore, I would not be giving the A+ right now. They have songs I like a lot, and not a lot of songs I don’t like, but they’re still immature. I definitely feel some element of rawness listening to them, just that there’s clearly some missing polish and refinement. The core is good, but they aren’t amazing. Albums three and four are definitely better. Brand New Eyes marks, I feel, a pretty solid shift in the cohesiveness of the albums, in the making of a work instead of a collection of songs. Album four, Paramore, has some bangers and is clearly ambitious in its heart, but it doesn’t land for me like I wish it would. None of those four albums really push me into being a Paramore fan. There’s steady progress and improvement at every step of these four albums, and I wouldn’t have ever called any of them bad.
The last two albums, After Laughter and This Is Why, do. In my head, in my memory, they were pretty consistently fun to listen to but there was enough that jarred me (angst and stuff for This Is Why, the whiplash change of sound for After Laughter) that I had a hard time liking the band, or liking the album— the overall vibe would lose me. In my relisten I just like it, After Laughter and This Is Why are two incredibly solid albums, both in my top… 20, maybe? I dunno, don’t hold me to that. The point is that they’re awesome. Just, super solid. Consistent, fun to listen to, interesting and performative in a compelling way, lyrically and thematically engaging. Super up my alley.
Those two albums that I love (along with some help from William’s solo stuff) help me recontextualize the earlier stuff from being “decent” into being “very good”. And with This Is Why being such a good follow up of After Laughter (and the follow up of a hiatus), it’s easy to see that those two albums I love aren’t the exception, they’re the new rule. They’re the result of the consistent upward climb Paramore has made since they first started making music. And I’m all here for it. I’m happy with the A+, but I am looking forward to a new album that will justify the bump into S-. If things continue as they have, it’s only a matter of time
tunafruitsandwitch 