Paramore’s newest album, This Is Why, made its debut on February 10. After 10 years of silence from Paramore, this album adds to the band’s variety and a mature layer to Paramore that listeners haven’t heard before. While this isn’t their best album that’s been released, there are songs within the album certain to become classics for Paramore fans. 

The album’s first two songs, “This Is Why” and “The News,” were released at the end of 2022 as singles. This was a smart decision on Paramore’s end, since they were some of the better songs on the album. The genre of those two songs also carried out what was to be heard in the rest of the album, for the most part. 

“This Is Why” is the powerful starting song for the album that it needed, giving the listeners an energetic, fun song that’s perfect for blasting in a car. This song has different layers to it as well, with layering vocals in its bridge that builds up to the exciting, iconic chorus that has already made the song popular with listeners.

From the two early releases, as well as the entirety of the album, “The News” is easily the most impactful when paying attention to the lyrics. While still fitting the rock genre, the meaning of the song is pretty sad, considering the song is warning people to turn off “The News,” because of how traumatizing it can be. This being said, it may take a few listens to understand the song enough to enjoy it, compared to the easily enjoyable sound from the previous song. 

The meaning of the songs in This is Why are overall different from their previous, popular releases, by Paramore. While “Still into You” and “All I Wanted” was popularized by those struggling with unrequited love, Paramore’s newest album focuses more on personal perspectives and struggles. 

“Figure 8” and “You First” are the perfect songs for anyone who longs for 2000s era Paramore. The band used vocals and created an overall nostalgic sound that resembled the band in their younger days. 

Songs like “C’est Comme Ca” and “Running Out Of Time ” certainly stand out, but not in a good way. They can easily be described as the worst songs on the whole album. “Running Out Of Time” certainly lives up to its name, as the song goes too fast to really understand the amount of stimulus being thrown into your ears through the song. In a metaphorical sense, the song is genius, but has an overall harsh tone that isn’t as enjoyable as the rest of the album. 

There’s a certain genre of people that can listen to “C’est Comme Ca” on a daily basis without getting brain damage. It’s not a completely terrible song, but the chorus wipes out any good qualities the song once had. Only if you ever need to be woken up in a loud, terribly annoying way, would the chorus of “C’est Comme Ca” have any purpose to be seeing the light of day. 

By the last three songs of the album, things start to slow down. “Liar” reveals the band to have a mature, slower side the listeners haven’t seen much of before. The vocals are stunning and are an overall quieter song, similar to the final song of the album “Thick Skull.” 

“Thick Skull” is a subtler rock song that has mournful lyrics, and is actually incredibly powerful when listened to in full. The song’s sound has a questionable combination of modern-day bitterness and the inner thoughts of an angsty teen from 2012, which turned out perfectly. 

Overall, the album isn’t something I would listen to in its entirety, but is definitely worthy of excitement after 10 years of absence from an album from the band.