Paramore - brand new eyes

This album comes a bit of a surprise like many other albums this year, but for Paramore, this is a bit of a hard rock orgy at points and considerably grown up in parts. I guess we all expected them not to follow up 'Riot!' so well but they have and if not, emulated it.

Going back to the hard rock orgy that was mentioned above, Paramore demonstrate this in 'Careful' the opening track to 'brand new eyes'. Most notably, is Zac Farro's drumming which is particularly gentle but harsh with thunderous power. When Hayley Williams singing starts, you begin to hear echo's from 'Misery Business' from their previous album 'Riot!', but how it parts itself away from 'Misery Business' is that it's a lot harder and more grown up vocally, considering Hayley is only, like 20? The up tempo start to 'brand new eyes' doesn't stop there, straight after 'Careful' we're slashed right into 'Ignorance' which starts in a stuttering guitar intro which stops to a thick bass line and a muted guitar sound which Hayley, almost talking, sings 'If I'm a bad person you don't like me well I'll make my own way, it's a circle I mean cycle' which oozes her confused sensibility. Again, the tempo doesn't die on track three, well it does, but not for long, when you hear the slow guitar lines from Josh Farro, you think Paramore are going to go all emo on us, but thankfully they snap out of it and Hayley booms out swagger-like lyrics like 'Next time you point a finger, I might have to bend it back or break it, break it off' which gives us the impression, if you fuck with her, you'll burn for it.

Paramore's third release is full of wonderful little surprises and 'The Only Exception' is definitely one of them. It's a beautiful love song about never falling in love, but one day finding that one 'Exception'. The song is built around a slow acoustic guitar melody, accompanied by the odd bass fill ins, but the highlight of the song is Hayley Williams vocals, as you can imagine falling in love with the girl or guy of your dreams listening to her sweet but far out voice. Paramore go back to the hard rock orgy straight after the romance of 'The Only Exception' in 'Feeling Sorry' which is a song about not having sympathy for anyone or wasting time about 'Feeling Sorry' for people. It starts out in forced and hard guitar mode, along with clashing drums and a flowing bass line and again, Hayley's blasted vocals which sound like they've been turned up to max... or wait, isn't that already Hayley's singing everyday?

Going back to those little surprises in 'brand new eyes', well again they have landed another one, with 'Misguided Ghosts' and this song is just about two people who have no direction in life, doesn't conform to normal ideas of life, just go their own way, whether they've walked the same road once before, it doesn't matter, because whoever they are, they're just misguided. 'All I Wanted' is probably one of the songs Paramore went all out for, it's a guitar drenched anthem and Hayley is battling with it, with her high screaming vocals shouting out 'All I Wanted Was You!' I thank that speaks for itself what the song is about.

'brand new eyes' is probably one of the most surprising albums of the year, especially after all the problems Paramore were having within the band. They seem to be sorted now and grown up a bit and showed they're not just one of those 'emo' bands. Because with this album, they are leaving that scene behind and will outlast a lot of other bands coming from there to. If you don't like the hard rock feel from 'brand new eyes' then surely the camp fire setting of the acoustic ballads like 'The Only Exception' and 'Misguided Ghosts' will charm you enough to warm to them.

4/5


Linus Broadbent.