Paramore Self-Titled Album

After Josh Farro (Lead Guitar) and Zac Farro (Drums) left Paramore, I was concerned about the direction of the band.

Last Tuesday, Paramore released a self-titled album:  the first Paramore album to not have Josh or Zac Farro in the band.  I was very skeptical about how this album would turn out.  Especially since Josh and Zac are very talented musicians and had a lot to do with why I like the group as much as I do.

The singles "Now" and "Still into You" were very underwhelming.  I feel pretty indifferent about both songs.  Though, the singles were a clear indication that Paramore fans were in store for a much more pop album than prior albums.

Which is exactly what we got.

My first impression was similar to the first time I listened to Danger Days, the last My Chemical Romance album.  It was really different.  At first I didn't like Danger Days, but it slowly grew on me and now I like it quite a lot.

The new Paramore album was similar, except, it grew on me quickly.  Over the past few days, I have really started digging this album.  Which is interesting because it's exactly what I feared... well, almost.

This album is very pop.  If you despise pop, you will despise this album.  Well, I guess I despise pop too so therefore I should despise this album, right?  Well, I guess if you want to get technical, I don't really have anything against the genre of pop.  I just generally hate the artists that fall into the genre of pop.  In my opinion, most of them are talentless hacks that either don't write their own music or write really unemotional, unimaginative, and annoying shit.

I don't hate all pop artists, believe it or not.  If you don't believe me, then maybe you should check this out.

So, what makes this album different from other pop music?  Basically, it does everything right that pop music generally does wrong.  The songs are creative.  The songs are emotional.  The songs have strong lyrical meaning.  The songs are catchy but they also give the listener something that they can truly relate to instead of another generic party song or something annoying as shit like LMFAO.

The singles for the new Paramore album are not a very good representation of what the rest of the album entails.  The song "Part II" was really the first song that I noticed lyrically since it is a reference to another song from Riot called "Let the Flames Begin."  Both songs start with similar lines about how "It's a shame that we all became such fragile broken things," and the same transition between verse and chorus of "Oh glory."  I thought that it was cool that they wrote a song about how they still feel the same as they did then.  Well, they supposedly still feel the same, anyways.

There is also this part of "Last Hope" that really struck with me.

"But the salt in my wounds,
Isn't burning anymore than it used to.
It's not that I don't feel the pain,
It's just I'm not afraid of hurting anymore."

This line is pretty heavy.  It almost sounds like something that you would find in a Jimmy Eat World song. Which is interesting because Paramore cites Jimmy Eat World as one of their biggest influences.  But, don't ask me to cite that fact because I don't remember where I heard it.

But, if that's not enough for you.  Paramore has done a cover of Jimmy Eat World's "Sweetness" at least twice live.  So...there!

The album also includes a couple of interludes which remind me a lot of Ingrid Michaelson.  If you haven't heard of Ingrid Michaelson, I suggest you check her out.  She's a very clean sounding folk artist with elements of pop

The slower songs also remind me of Christina Perri (not to be confused with the boring Katy Perry).  They're very emotional and the vocals sound astounding.  Then again, we don't really expect any less from Hayley Williams by now, do we?


The album is also very long.  It's much longer than any other album that Paramore has done.  It clocks in at around 63 minutes give or take a minute.  The thing is, the album really doesn't feel like it has any filler.  Every song on the album, whether I like that particular song or not, seems to have real meaning to the band which is more than The Clash can say about Sandinista!

Basically, I really like this album.  I think it takes all of the aspects that pop music has to offer and puts a Paramore kind of twist on it.  Sure, this album doesn't really come close to being as good Riot but this is still a very good Paramore album, especially for an album I thought was going to be garbage.  I really suggest you check it out.  Even if you generally hate music like I do.  You might change your mind after listening to this.