I am of course, talking about my namesake – Paramore (where’d you think the “RIOT” came from??) who’ve just released their badass sixth album, This Is Why. Their first since 2017’s After Laughter. We’ve also been spoilt by Hayley with not one, but TWO solo albums — 2020’s Petals For Armor, and 2021’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos (written and recorded entirely by herself).
The album was announced back in September as the title track was released as the lead single, their long-awaited comeback. Unlike AL, we had to wait a couple of agonising months for TIW’s release on February 10th. However, besides the title track, we were treated to two more singles to keep us going – the postpunk heavy, The News and C’est Comme Ça.
Heavily inspired by British bands such as Bloc Party (their upcoming UK tour support), Hillsy-favourites Wet Leg (he’s OBSESSED), and pretty much anything from the early ‘00s. YES PLEASE.
Come February, I was about to have 7 more newbies to almost drain my poor 16 year old iPod’s (it’s a relic which still works!) battery with being “stuck” on repeat. I couldn’t wait. The OG trio of Hayley, Taylor and Zac had returned! (Sorry Leg!)
It’s hard to choose which songs are my favourites, they’re all brilliant. Today, I’ll say Running Out of Time (the upcoming single), You First, Figure 8 and the slightly… dare I say, Blur-influenced(??) closer, Thick Skull (THAT BRIDGE!). Ask me again tomorrow and it’ll probably be different.
They were the first band I ever listened to when I was about 14 (16 years ago! Christ.), would you believe through hearing them doing a Simlish version of Pressure in the GameCube version of The Sims 2 – I’m pretty sure I messed with some settings in the game and made sure the radios played nothing else in all of my Sims’ houses, I’m not even sorry.
I still have all my merch, except one shirt which a grumpy ol’ human threw out (MONSTER!! Thanks dad). Hell, I even remember the little bag from joining their official fanclub which had a shirt, membership card, badge and a pre-printed signed letter. 15 year old me was made up!
Even things like the Brand New Eyes boxset (do NOT look up how much these go for now, silly money), I’ve now moved that downstairs since I made some space on the shelves along with the 7” singles for Miz Biz and crushcrushcrush (bring that back to the setlists plz kthnx). Or even a replica of a wristband Hayley had in the BNE era which said “don’t be ignorant” (cos y’know Ignorance is your new best friend, don’t you know!).
In two months’ time, it’ll be me eighth time seeing them and it only hit me a few weeks ago that it was 15 years since I first saw them live. That’s when prices weren’t through the roof, nor did you have to be part of a bloodbath to get tickets. Fun times.
It’ll sound soppy as shit, but whenever there’s a new Paramore era announced, I start to feel an overwhelming sense of joy. Sod wondering if that sport with the balls is coming home, Paramore are! I’m just glad they’re back!!
As I write this, I swear I didn’t listen to the album like, 10 times today repeatedly. Good luck to anyone trying to get me to mention anything else for a while!
As ever, you can find me on Twitter (aka the bonfire website), Instagram and Twitch most Tuesdays & Thursdays at 7pm (UK/GMT time).
EDIT NOTE(S): 20/2/23 — updated to include links to each of the albums/songs mentioned in this article, along with image captions.
