Hi everyone! Yes, we're back! It's only taken us a year and a half... But yes, we are very much back, and we are ready to again provide some (brutally) honest insights into the latest and greatest of what music has to offer. Before we start, let us introduce our brand new ratings system!
1 - Shouldn't have been recorded
2 - Filler
3 - Above average filler
4 - Killer
5 - Career defining masterpiece
This should make our reviews a little easier to understand, and a little fairer as we rate other albums too. During our conclusions we will work out our individual overall scores for each album using an average of our track by track ratings.
Kicking us off, we have Paramore with After Laughter - their eagerly awaited first release in 4 years. This will be a big moment for old and new fans alike, as we get to discover what Hayley and co. have been up to for the last few years. Neither of us are sure of what to expect going into this but we are most definitely intrigued!
And here we go...
Track 01 - Hard Times
John: 3.5/5
Tilly: 3/5
Track 02 - Rose-Colored Boy
John: 1.5/5
Tilly: 1.5/5
Track 03 - Told You So
John: 2/5
Tilly: 3/5
Track 04 - Forgiveness
John: 1/5
Tilly: 1/5
Track 05 - Fake Happy
John: 3/5
Tilly: 2.5/5
Track 06 - 26
John: 3.5/5
Tilly: 3.5/5
Track 07 - Pool
John: 2.5/5
Tilly: 2.5/5
Track 08 - Grudges
John: 2/5
Tilly: 2/5
Track 09 - Caught In The Middle
John: 1.5/5
Tilly: 1.5/5
Track 10 - Idle Worship
John: 1/5
Tilly: 1.5/5
Track 11 - No Friend
John: 1/5
Tilly: 1/5
Track 12 - Tell Me How
John: 1/5
Tilly: 1.5/5
Conclusion
John - For me, Paramore have just taken their identity, screwed it into a ball, and thrown it into a bin. I think this album should have been a career defining moment for the band, but instead we have what feels to me like an unfinished demo. Almost every song is mid-tempo, and it turns the album into a drag. By track 6 I'm left wondering if I can take any more.Even the highs weren't brilliant. Hard Times and Fake Happy are definitely going to be listened to again, and I enjoyed 26 - a very pretty song. But none of those can even stand up to anything on Riot, Brand New Eyes, or Paramore. When you compare this with tracks like Still Into You, Monster, Brick By Boring Brick, and All I Wanted, well, there IS no comparison..
And then of course, there were songs like Forgiveness, Idle Worship, and Tell Me How, which were filler at the very best, and that's putting it politely. As for No Friend... I struggled to rate it at all.There are certainly glimpses on here of what Paramore are capable of, however they were few and far between, and fleeting at best. This is the most frustrating album I have ever listened to.
Overall Score - 2/5
Tilly - It's no secret that Paramore has been one of my favourite bands for a fairly long time now. Brand New Eyes has remained one of my favourite albums of all time, Riot! is undeniably a 2000's classic and I genuinely loved their self-titled despite the drastic change in direction. I've enjoyed Told You So and Hard Times over the last couple of days and found myself adjusting to this new indie pop sound they've been going for and was highly anticipating After Laughter. All I can say is this has to be one of the biggest musical letdowns I have ever witnessed. Forget Fall Out Boy, forget Linkin Park, this change of direction has not worked whatsoever for Hayley (let's be honest, this is unmistakably a solo album). Yes, the singles have been okay, but more than half of the album is full of uninspired lyrics, shrieking vocals and the weakest bridges I've had the displeasure of hearing in recent months. I love Paramore, but I don't love this.
26 was beautifully written, and Hard Times, Told You So, Fake Happy and Pool were fun but they are amongst some truly forgettable and pretty bad songs. No Friend honestly sounds like Donald Trump has hired the band to create some mind altering trance, and it is nothing short of being incredibly sinister, Forgiveness is excruciatingly boring and Rose Coloured Boy feels like it's borrowed from Fleur East's Sax, which says it all doesn't it? I'll continue to get hyped up for Paramore's new releases, as I'm sure I will for years to come, but please don't ever deliver a rushed, piece of crap like this again guys.
Overall Score - 2.5/5