Beth Ray Writes

Paramore are currently supporting Taylor Swift on her ERA’s tour and there is the divide in Swifties who know the band already and the Swifties who aren’t as familiar with the American band. I fall into the category of a HUGE Paramore fan and the friends I went to see Taylor Swift with were not, which led to me giving a detailed history behind each track to everyone who was around me as Paramore were performing (sorry if that was you).

So I thought i’d share with you why I feel so passionately about the band.
First of all Paramore are made up of Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York. They have been friends since they were teenagers but Paramore have had different band members throughout their discography (more on that later).

The most important reason why I like Paramore is because they are a band I have grown up with. Their debut album “All We Know Is Falling” was released back in 2005, I was 12 and the band themselves were also in their teens (Hayley Williams would have been around 16 when the album was released).
When Riot! Paramore’s second album came out, it was 2007 at a time when rock music and in particular emo music was really popular (My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade” had been released the year before and Fall Out Boy had released “Infinity On High” the same year as Riot!) and their album became huge with their single “Misery Business” being one of their most famous songs.

With Paramore it’s not just that i’ve grown up alongside them, it’s the fact their music is so honest to themselves and tells a story about the times they were going through personally. There are lots of themes of depression, anxieties and heartbreak. For me the album “After Laughter” is a clear example of the band all going through a lot of emotions, yet they provided such fun, catchy indie-pop tunes at the same time.

Hayley Williams recently uploaded a video onto the bands instagram on the 30th May (it’s currently pinned at the top of their insta profile) and she reintroduces herself to new fans and mentions a podcast called “Bandsplain” where the podcast delves into a huge deep dive into Paramore history on their Paramore episode. A warning it is 3 hours long but if you are a music geek like me it is really interesting. They cover all of the drama that unfolds within the band, as Hayley says in the instagram video “Paramore history is tough, we are a big soap opera” and she goes onto say this is a deep dive the band can feel like they can endorse. I found it really interesting with the bands shake ups, with Josh and Zac Farro leaving the band and then Zac coming back, their album ‘Brand New Eyes’ was written when ‘they all hated each other’ and how when they were interviewed for their most recent album “This Is Why” the band tell Zane Lowe they are all in much better places then with previous albums.

I would like to direct your attention back to the music, as although the drama is interesting, don’t let it be a distraction from how the band have written some amazing tunes and are all brilliant musicians. When Josh and Zac left Taylor York had to step up his songwriting duties and him and Hayley wrote some amazing songs, including “Aint it Fun” and Taylor now produces a lot of Paramore’s music. Also watching the band live is an honour, i’ve watched hours of their live performances on Youtube and Hayley is a natural front-woman, she has rhythm, charisma and she is so fucking cool. Even Taylor Swift had to make a point of pausing her duet with Hayley to say how cool she is when they sang her surprise song “Castles Crumbling” on night 2 of Taylor Swift’s first set of London shows.

Anyway I hope you give Paramore a listen and the Swifties who have been lucky enough to see them live enjoy listening to their back catalogue.

I’ve included below my favourite songs, but i’d say ‘After Laughter’ is my favourite album with so many great songs (‘Pool’ is my favourite track at the moment) and i’d recommend listening to both the Bandsplain podcast and the Zane Lowe interviews with the band for albums ‘After Laughter’ and ‘This is Why’.

I could write more but i’ll leave it up to you if you want to discover this great band, as I don’t want to ruin the fun of discovering their history and amazing music catalogue.
Enjoy the deep-dive and let me know which are your favourite Paramore tracks in the comment box

Beth x