Hayley can go from rock star to superstar
PARAMORE After Laughter (Atlantic) Verdict: Not to be scoffed at ★★★★✩
HAYLEY WILLIAMS was once dubbed ‘the great orange hope’ by John mayer. The singersongwriter was as impressed by her ruby hair as he was by the burgeoning talent of the charismatic frontwoman of U.S. rock band Paramore.
Williams has since dyed her locks blonde, but she remains a superstar in waiting, and the fifth Paramore album is a classy statement of intent that could elevate the 28-year- old singer to the stature of her heroine Gwen Stefani.
made in Nashville — the first time the group have recorded in their hometown — after Laughter dispenses with crunching power chords in favour of bright melodies and heightened grooves. it’s a move from alternative rock to the mainstream similar to the one made more than a decade ago by maroon 5.
The record arrives after a period of internal turmoil. in the four years since Paramore’s last, self-titled album topped the Uk charts and saw them headline Reading Festival, they have parted company with a bassist, regained their original drummer and come through a draining legal battle.
That’s nothing new for a group that seems to thrive on drama. Williams joined the ranks when she was 15 and soon began writing punky-pop songs at odds with Nashville’s big- hatted country acts. it wasn’t long before she was raging against ‘a ton of stressful, pressure-filled situations’, and there’s no shortage of anxiety again here.
For all its shiny accessibility, after Laughter begins ominously. Opening track hard Times starts with the line: ‘ all that i want is to wake up fine / Tell me that i’m alright, that i ain’t gonna die.’ For the ‘ halfempty girl’ that hayley has become, it’s largely downhill from there.
Rose- colored Boy finds her getting rid of ‘ what was left of the optimist in me’. caught in The middle is dominated by the self-pitying refrain: ‘don’t need no one else / i can sabotage me by myself.’
Such a marriage of angstridden lyrics and buoyant tunes is nothing new. The Smiths turned it into an art form during the eighties, but it’s hard to think of another contemporary band who are mixing misery and melody with as much invention and flair.
hard Times again sets the tone, with steel drums and guitarist Taylor York’s nagging, tropical hook paving the way for an infectious chorus. The guitarist, who co-produces here, is prominent again on Rosecoloured Boy, underpinning a chant-like vocal that channels Stefani’s hollaback Girl.
Williams’s lithe, versatile soprano adopts a more countryish twang on the ballad Tell me how, while the acoustic 26 harks back to the band’s 2010 single The Only exception. amid the gloom, there’s even the odd shard of optimism, with powerpop number Grudges advising us to let bygones be bygones.
There’s also something reassuring about Williams’s decision to resist launching a solo career to stay as the focal point of a touring band. heaven knows she’s miserable now, but she’s pointing Paramore firmly towards bigger things.
Paramore start a UK tour at the Waterfront, Belfast, on June 16 (paramore.net).