The Daily Spin, February 13
Paramore | This Is Why
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: This Is Why (2023)
Artist: Paramore
Link:
What Paramore wanted This Is Why and what it actually is are two very different things.
I can see it, in a sense - after six years pursuing other projects, the group comes back together to switch gears, aiming for a venture into pop-punk, a genre that makes sense for a group like Paramore to pivot into. WIth a loyal following and all the talent in the world lying in vocalist Hayley Williams’ voice, there’s a lot that really could have broken right. It’s a slam dunk.
Rarely does life quite match what we dream for it, though, and this album falls short in a lot of ways that matter deeply. Cheap hooks drag while vaguely political jabs are left both ineffectively dull and just prickling enough to be noticeable. It’s tired commentary, worn thin not only by years of wear from existing in this world but from walking on a path madly worn by those who came before Paramore.
Innovative, it is not, and that’s the biggest shame. Where as After Laughter took Paramore’s ethos and applied a shimmery 80s-pop filter to it to grand effect, This Is Why slipped a blindfold on and stumbled through a corn maze - it feels aimless.
Rating: 6.2/10
Best Tracks: Liar; Thick Skull
Worst Tracks: C’est Comme Ca; Big Man, Little Dignity