More about: ParamoreHayley Williams

For nearly 20 years, Paramore and frontwoman Hayley Williams have been key figures in the pop-punk genre, inspiring artists today such as Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish. Part of the band's enduring quality comes from their ability to continuously reinvent themselves, starting with crunching guitars, through classic pop-punk and now taking a turn, maturing into ’80s synth-pop and new wave. 

With the return of the band thanks to their newest single ‘This Is Why’, along with the announcement of their upcoming album of the same name in February 2023, we take a look back at how Williams got here and where she might go.

All We Know Is Falling (2005)

Before the conception of Paramore, Williams signed to Atlantic Records as a solo pop artist. Quickly realising it wasn’t for her and opposing the label to form Paramore with Josh Farro, Zac Farro, and Jeremy Davis, we’ve never been more thankful for disobedience. However, Davis left the band during the recording process of the album, leading the remaining members to base the album around his exit. Williams channeled feelings of emptiness and abandonment from both Davis’ departure and her parent’s divorce in her songwriting. “Some things I’ll never know / And I had to let them go / I’m sitting all alone / Feeling empty,” Williams sings on the record’s first single, ‘Pressure’. Paramore weren’t even close to what they would eventually become, with their debut being emotionally and sonically raw, sitting on the cutting edge of the 00s pop-punk. Fusing elements of emo into their mall-punk sound, they had something to call their own. And created a sound that began to inspire bands in their garage all across the world with Hayley’s strong vocals at the center of obsession.

Riot! (2007)

Two years later, Paramore released their breakthrough sophomore album. Listeners found Williams’ belted-out “woah” hooks irresistible and grew to love the band’s ability to package every teenage crisis into three minutes of explosive fury. The album’s ferocious lead single, ‘Misery Business’, introduced the band to both international and mainstream audiences. The cutting lyrics paired with Hayley’s vocals, now stronger and more characterful than ever, still scratch our brain in the best way. In a world before it became unexceptable to write a purely misogynistic track calling other women sluts, ‘Misery Business’ was a smash hit, earning them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Exploring themes of love, loss, and letting go, Riot! solidified Paramore’s identity as one of conviction and passion. Williams became the forefront of this sentiment, finding strength through vulnerability and defiance with a vocal that kept getting more powerful.

Brand New Eyes (2009)

The run-up to Brand New Eyes saw the band run into internal issues that eventually led to Josh and Zac Farro leaving the band in 2010. Paramore was in the messy process of growing up from all the anger in Riot!, marking their maturity with a few slower, radio-friendly acoustic tunes; ‘The Only Exception’, ‘Misguided Ghosts’, and ‘All I Wanted’. With these tracks, the band evolved instrumentally, incorporating sparse and delicate instrumentation to put all the focus on Williams' delicate vocals. However, this didn’t take anything away from Paramore’s bite with lyrics like “Next time you point a finger / I might have to bend it back / Or break it off” confronting Williams’ deniers. This all culminated into a multifaceted record that evolved from the band’s more one-note sound in Riot! and hinted at the band’s ability to explore different genres in their future releases. 

Paramore (2013)

Prior to Paramore, Williams spent her youth singing at church and listening to Motown. ‘Ain't’ it Fun’ demonstrates these early influences by incorporating elements of funk, gospel, and R&B into the band’s new power pop sound. When listening to Paramore, one would not be mistaken for believing that the record was a complete reintroduction for the band. The upbeat pop nature of ‘Still Into You’ would sound out of place on any of the band’s previous releases. With brighter instrumentation and more refined vocal delivery, Paramore sounds like they’re having the most fun here, and the extended runtime frees up the band to give tracks like ‘Part II’ and ‘Future’ room to breathe. The four year gap did so much for the band - returning with an almost genre-less sound, shrugging off the pressure to remain a pop-punk band, Hayley’s vocals couldn’t be confident to purely one sound and Paramore made space for her to be everything at once.

After Laughter (2017)

After Laughter saw the return of Zac Farro on drums but the departure of Davis once again as they continued their reputation as the Fleetwood Mac of modern music. The album leaves behind the band’s pop punk roots to fully embrace ’80s new wave and synth-pop. In contrast to this sunny soundscape, Williams explored personal themes of depression, anxiety, and loneliness in the lyrics. This pairing makes for some of the most emotionally resonant moments on the band’s entire discography. Tracks like ‘Rose-Colored Boy’ and ‘Fake Happy’ see Williams struggle with presenting herself as upbeat. After Laughter proves how seamlessly Paramore can change their sound while maintaining the same honest songwriting approach. 

Petals for Armor (2020)

Petals for Armor explores similar subject matter to After Laughter but sheds its shiny production for a more moody art pop affair. The album coincided with Williams’ divorce and long-term depression. It’s the product of intensive introspection – 15 tracks that follow her through anger, recovery, and, eventually, growth. With Paramore guitarist Taylor York as producer, Petals for Armor explores In Rainbows-era Radiohead, ’80s R&B, and even early Björk. In the opener, ‘Simmer’, Williams sings “wrap yourself in petals for armor”. It’s an image that she imagined, believing that the way to protect herself best was to be vulnerable and create her most personal solo project. 

FLOWERS for VASES / Descansos (2021)

Williams again changed genres, this time trading out art pop for indie folk, characterized by sparse acoustic guitars, piano, and drums, and proving that a voice like that can do anything. She wrote and recorded every part of the record alone in lockdown. This resulted in a softer, more reflective record than Petals for Armor, and one that acts as a collection of Williams’ diary entries in song form. With Williams baring her soul for all to hear, it’s truly an album of the pandemic era. 

'This Is Why' (2022)

Opening with a groovy bass and playful guitar line before exploding into a bright new wave chorus, 'This Is Why' exists somewhere between Paramore’s older pop-punk material and their later embrace of ’80s electronics. Back with her old signature orange hair, Williams teased this return to a guitar-driven, post-punk revival sound, citing Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm as an inspiration. After a five-year break, the track sees Paramore both frustrated and exhausted at the state of the world with the chorus “This is why I don’t leave the house,” quite relatable. It’s yet another new direction for Williams and the band, but it still keeps its unifying energy.

What could be next? No one knows. Seemingly moving into a more funk-inspired, electronic tinged direction away from the raw guitar hits we used to know and love - the band can’t be pinned down. Forever keeping fans on their toes, the only thing you can ever really rely on is the enduring quality of Hayley Williams as a frontwoman and lead vocalist. Proving her power in indie folk, pure pop and rock, it seems like she can do it all. So its just a case of settling on one thing.

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More about: ParamoreHayley Williams