This Is Why
Few rock bands this side of Y2K have committed themselves to forward motion quite like Paramore. But in order to summon the aggression of their sixth full-length, the Tennessee outfit needed to look back—to draw on some of the same urgency that defined them early on, when they were teenaged upstarts slinging pop punk on the Warped Tour. “I think that\'s why this was a hard record to make,” Hayley Williams tells Apple Music of *This Is Why*. “Because how do you do that without putting the car in reverse completely?” In the neon wake of 2017’s *After Laughter*—an unabashed pop record—guitarist Taylor York says he found himself “really craving rock.” Add to that a combination of global pandemic, social unrest, apocalyptic weather, and war, and you have what feels like a suitable backdrop (if not cause) for music with edges. “I think figuring out a smarter way to make something aggressive isn\'t just turning up the distortion,” York says. “That’s where there was a lot of tension, us trying to collectively figure out what that looks like and can all three of us really get behind it and feel represented. It was really difficult sometimes, but when we listened back at the end, we were like, ‘Sick.’” What that looks like is a set of spiky but highly listenable (and often danceable) post-punk that draws influence from early-2000s revivalists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand, and Hot Hot Heat. Throughout, Williams offers relatable glimpses of what it’s been like to live through the last few years, whether it’s feelings of anxiety (the title cut), outrage (“The News”), or atrophy (“C’est Comme Ça”). “I got to yell a lot on this record, and I was afraid of that, because I’ve been treating my voice so kindly and now I’m fucking smashing it to bits,” she says. “We finished the first day in the studio and listened back to the music and we were like, ‘Who is this?’ It simultaneously sounds like everything we\'ve ever loved and nothing that we\'ve ever done before ourselves. To me, that\'s always a great sign, because there\'s not many posts along the way that tell you where to go. You\'re just raw-dogging it. Into the abyss.”
Hayley Williams and co. pivot to jittery, crackling post-punk on their sixth album, but the monotone vocals and political lyrics don’t always play to their strengths.
The trio's clear-eyed and powerful sixth album encapsulates their journey to becoming a generation-defining band
Like all good jangling indie bop purveyors, beneath the fluctuations of chipper notes from Paramore swims a dark underbelly, and This Is Why relishes in this fact
The Tennessee guitar pop band’s sixth album ranges from volcanic energy to slower tracks that suggest an appealing maturity
On 'This Is Why,' their first album in nearly six years, Tennessee trio Paramore traverses pop-punk, New Wave, and various other stylings with cohesion and flair
Tennessee titans Paramore ponder life, love and what we lose as the world grows louder on striking sixth album This Is Why…
Both an evolution and a revolution true to who they are, that constant motion never fails to hit the spot.
Hayley Williams shouts lines like protest slogans on a sixth album that unravels the myriad contradictions of modern life
Paramore don't care about nostalgia. On bold and different sixth album, 'This Is Why', they prove they are far from a legacy band.
Discover This Is Why by Paramore released in 2023. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Paramore have rebuilt their house again - and they’ve settled in right away. Standing taller than ever, on 'This Is Why', they’ve taken the same raw
Six years have passed since PARAMORE released their last album, 2017's "After Laughter", but so much has changed in that time. The Nashville punk-pop band's latest album, "This is Why", is a snapshot of today and what the world has experienced over the past three or so crazy years. PARAMORE rose to...
Will Marshall reviews the new album from returning emo giants Paramore! Read the review of 'This Is Why' here on Distorted Sound!
The pop-punk band have progressed from teenage bile to thirtysomething angst, expressed with agitated drumming, angular guitars, big riffs and heartfelt lyrics
Paramore - This Is Why review: A worthy if mildly disappointing addition to Paramore's canon.
The Australian jazz singer wants to be on the move, Paramore sound a little different, and Yo La Tengo cycle through life and death
Superstar US band successfully expand their sound on their sparkling sixth. Review by Cheri Amour.