Review: Paramore Return With The Anthem-Laden ‘This Is Why’

“This is the first show of the rest of our lives,” Paramore’s Hayley Williams told the crowd at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry earlier this week. The concert marked the group’s first hometown show since 2018 and acted as a preview of their impending album, This Is Why.

Donning their Opry garb (boots, fringe and rhinestones for those less well-versed), the group played a hit-packed setlist, a few rarities and a selection of singles from the impending record.

The show was a real-life manifestation of the passion for Paramore that has been flying around on social media for going on six years now. Despite not sharing new music since 2017, love for the group has only seemed to grow across TikTok and “Stan” Twitter – a whole new generation of fans is amassing alongside the day-ones.

That same fervor was struggling to be contained in the Opry pews as fans were routinely checking their clocks, counting down the seconds until the three-piece walked unto the famed circle. Clutching signs that read, “we missed you,” the crowd anxiously waited to see what tasters of This Is Why they would be gifted.

By the time the curtain was closed, they got to scream along to the anthemic opener “This Is Why,” relieve some current events-related stress with “The News,” groove along to the punky “C’est Comme Ca” and hear a previously unreleased song “Running Out of Time.” That seemed to be enough to satiate them until the full album was released but – as they have surely figured out today (Feb. 10) – the best was yet to come.

Their previous release, After Laughter, saw lyrical think pieces that were softened with a floor-filling musical direction. This Is Why seems to perfect that dualism.

When listening to this album with your head, you’ll find a frenzied address from Williams about the modern experience: trying to find inner peace in the face of a cultural war. When listening with your heart, you’ll be urged to leave any notion of turmoil behind, flail limbs and float along with their finely curated groove.

Sonically, they manage to hold the tension between their earliest influences and something deeply modern. “Thick Skull” feels like a track that could’ve come from a much earlier Paramore while “C’est Comme Ca” is influenced heavily by their more contemporary peers. Both feel right in time with the band’s ever-evolving story.

Elsewhere they continue their reign as stewards of guitar music with “Figure 8” and lull through an unexpected ballad with “Liar.” A standout on the record is the head-banging “Running Out of Time.” In the lyrics, Williams sings about “always being late for everything,” as she explained at the Opry. “Unless you want to think about the planet dying, and then it can be that deep,” she continued to say.

Intentions only get you so far / What if I’m just a selfish prick; no regard? / I’m always running out of time, she sings on this guitar-led anthem.

For their first album in six years, Paramore hits the perfect stride. With the internet earning them more fans by the day, it makes sense to add a glimmer of the sound they made their name on but, they don’t succumb to the pitfalls of nostalgia. Make no mistake, despite being twenty years into their tenure Paramore isn’t done exploring the breadths of what they can be.

Photo by Zachary Gray / The Oriel