Paramore - After Laughter (Review)

It's very rare that during an album you question your own existence and why you do what you do. Why do I put myself through such terrible music just to write about it like Ed Sheeran's ÷ or Wale's Shine. But none more so have I done that than through this album. Everything that made Paramore, successful or unique, whether you liked it or not, it's out of the window. Because they've realised tht generic pop is where the money's at, nobody listens to shitty post-punk crap anymore. In some ways you can hardly blame them, but at least be good at the genre you're delving into. I just feel that this album should have been released under some sort of different persona, so that it represesnted an evolution of the band, because how are the Paramore fans of old going to claim they're an edgy Paramore fan now?

The album opens with one of the worst tracks of the year, Hard Times, and this is the first time we get to see that they're incredibly out of their depth here with this album. Because they were not cut out to be a pop band, and they never were. Hayley Williams' singing is barely average at times on this track, despite being a very talented singer which she shows deeper into the album with songs like Forgiveness, which is a slow, more acoustic track. I can dig this type of music if they were to continue making this, rather than the terrible tongue in cheek bubblegum pop they've decided to make. The only people I could imagine enjoying this album is 14 year old girls, who think the world doesn't understand them, but Paramore do, they've got relateable lyrics like "If I smile with my teeth, will you believe me" on the teen-anthem Fake Happy. I can just imagine Urban Outfitters hipsters going in to UO and paying double the price for this on vinyl, when they could go to the record store across the road and get it much cheaper. I don't even want to write about this album anymore, just don't listen to it.

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