Paramore have been a band for 13 years and despite all the crap that they’ve been through, they’re still here. Over that time, they’ve evolved personally, lyrically and sonically, with the result of that evolution is their fifth album After Laughter, on Fueled By Ramen.
Consisting of 12 incredible tracks, After Laughter combines elements of Paramore’s past with a new sound. Starting off the album is the lead single “Hard Times” which flows right into “Rose-Colored Boy”. The song starts off with a funky shouting section and goes into what is one of my favorite tracks on the album at the moment. Listening to “Rose-Colored Boy” makes you feel good and is extremely catchy; this one will be stuck in your head for days.
A little later in the album is a song called “Fake Happy”. It starts out very slow with just a guitar and Hayley Williams singing; it almost sounds like an interlude. But then this synth comes in backed up by a thumping bass line and the song turns into a something you can dance to. “Oh please, don’t ask me how I’ve been, don’t make me play pretend” is one of the lyrics that sticks out to me. You know how it is when you get asked how you’re doing and you don’t actually say how you’re doing. This song explains that whole experience.
“26” is one of the tracks on the album where the lyrics stuck out to me. Featuring an acoustic guitar, Williams singing and a beautiful sounding string section, this song just rips your heart apart. “Hold onto hope if you’ve got it” is a lyric from this song that stuck with me the whole rest of the way through the album. Not only that but this is the first song where you’ll hear little tie ins to Paramore’s past songs. “26” ties in to “Brick by Boring Brick” when it says “After all wasn’t I the one who said to keep your feet on the ground”.
The album picks back up after reducing you down to tears and has a surprise toward the end. On the song “No Friend” Aaron Weiss from mewithoutYou sings the whole song. He starts out singing really quietly and then he picks up volume as the song goes on. It’s a nice little treat to hear him on the album because mewithoutYou is Paramore’s favorite band. The very last song on the album is called “Tell Me How”. This is another emotional song, it’s sort of slow it’s a pretty simple sounding song. Lyrically this is another song that stood out because of lines like “Of all the weapons you fight with, your silence is the most violent”. Silence can be just as painful as words and that line tells you that.
This to me is probably the best album Paramore has made and I’m so happy to finally hear what they’ve been working on for the past tw0 years.
- Hard Times
- Rose-Colored Boy
- Told You So
- Forgiveness
- Fake Happy
- 26
- Pool
- Grudges
- Caught In The Middle
- Idle Worship
- No Friend
- Tell Me How
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Post by Madeline Cronin
What are your thoughts on After Laughter? Comment below.
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