Album Review: 'This Is Why', Paramore

Released February 10th 2023

Written by Ashley Thieme

Paramore Live at Cardiff International Arena on the 'This Is Why' tour.

This Is Why is the sixth studio album from pop-punk band Paramore. Hailing from Tennessee and making music together since 2004, Paramore have had their ups and downs as band, with members leaving and returning over time, but their sound has always been reflective of where they are as a band. The long awaited album, released on February 10th comes to fans after the band took a hiatus after the tour of their last studio album After Laughter, which was released in 2017, so it has been a while since we have had any new material from the band. During the time of the band's hiatus, front woman Hayley Williams released solo music in the form of her debut album titled Petals For Armour in 2020, the tour for which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes of the pandemic are present in the album, with songs like The News and This Is Why making the album relatable to the listener.

The title track This Is Why takes the first spot on the album and was also the lead single released on September 28th 2022. Williams tells the listener to "shove" their opinions and to keep it to themselves before chanting the chorus "This is why I don't leave the house / You say the coast is clear / But you won't catch me out". This is telling of the situation since 2020, staying inside and being too weary to come back to reality because everything we once knew had been flipped upside down and is now so unfamiliar.

The News is the second track and second single from the album. This track hits some of the same themes as This Is Why but in more depth. Again, in this song the chorus is the most powerful outcry "Every second our collective heart breaks / All together every single head shakes / Shut your eyes but it won't go away / Turn on, turn off the news". The heart breaks is potentially a reference to the losses seen on the news, shaking of heads demonstrating the lack of confidence in governance, the inability to ignore the news but not wanting to watch the news for all the negativity. The song tells us exactly what the band thinks of the news - "Exploitative, performative, informative".

Other tracks on the album include Running Out Of Time, C'est Comme Ça, Big Man, Little Dignity, You First, Figure 8 and Thick Skull. However, two more notable tracks are Liar and Crave. Liar is speculated by fans to be about Hayley William's bandmate Taylor York who she has recently revealed she is in a relationship with. The song depicts a healthy relationship where love does not make you feel weak but strong, and how there is no need to lie to or hide parts of yourself from someone who loves you. Crave then embodies the feeling of nostalgia perfectly. The song talks about "Future and past connecting" and the felling when you "Crave to do it again", potentially a nod to Paramore's old, punk style of music that they moved away from with After Laughter.

The album is a sign of the times, reflecting on the years of staying indoors because of the global pandemic in such a relatable way. From not wanting to leave the house to turning off the news, the album tells us where we are as a society but also where the band are in their lives, what they are feeling, and their personal connections. After Laughter proved that the band could write the most damning and emotionally destroying lyrics and put them on a track that could still make you get up and want to dance, and on This Is Why they have done it again.

Lyrics referenced from Spotify.

Featured image taken by Ashley Thieme.