Paramore - After Laughter

Somehow After Laughter is Paramore's 5th album which is pretty impressive since lead singer Haley Williams just turned 29. But things haven't been easy for the band, especially after thier self titled 4th album where for a while it didn't look like the band would ever make an album again. You could say they were going through some hard times.

And that is exactly how the album kicks off - with the hit single "Hard Times". This is what I call my "Entry to Paramore song". Which bascially means this first song I heard which really made me want to discover Paramore's music. I did like "Misery Business" when it came out all those years back but for some reason I never got into their stuff more.  Anyway back to "Hard Times".  This really is a change of direction for the band who are known for their emo, punk rock, ballady songs. Although the lyrics are still associated with the emo scene. For example, the opening lyric on HT really does set this out with "All that I want, is to wake up fine, tell me that I'm alright and I ain't gonna die". The actual music is more pop music that you can dance to. It is a brave move for Paramore but with this album they have pulled it off.

Another song where the underlying music is so uplifting but the lyrics feel so sad is "Fake Happy". When I first heard this, I just thought that it was screaming out to be a single and now it is. The chorus is so catchy and really powerful which is kind of the opposite to what the lyrics are actually portraying. "Pool" and "Grudges" are some more highlights from this gem of an album. So upbeat.  "Grudges" actually feels like Williams is singing like the ladies in Abba. Not a bad thing at all.

I say that AL is a move away from their emo/punk rock roots. And on the whole it is, as their sound is more upbeat pop on this album. But one thing they have done on most of their albums and have done on this album is their famous ballady type songs. On "Riot" it was "When it rains". On "Brand new eyes" it was "Only Exception" and on "Paramore" it was "Last hope". In fact the only one I would need to hire a detective to find a ballad on was their debut.  On "After Laughter", they keep this tradtition going with a couple of ballads "26" and album closer "Tell me how".  The 2 songs have different approaches though with "26" being accousitc number while "Tell me how" is piano driven.  Both are really good songs which add diversity and a nice change of pace to the album.

Overall you have to hand it to Paramore. They have been through the wars, channelled it into their music and produced an album which is different to their older stuff which is quite refreshing for a band these days.  While I don't think this is quite as good as "Riot" or "Brand new eyes", I still rank this album very highly and definietly in my top albums of 2017.