paramore - after laughter - recording and anticipation

first single from the s/t was "now" so i'd say it was less than perfect

i was at first weirded out by the amount of empty space in it but now i've listened to it 500000 times so i no longer have perspective

V much into this

This slams.

thinking about this as it relates to "now," where a band that slipped into being a new wave emo trio wanted to reconnect to their past and write an older, rockier paramore song and the final construction is a really awkward frankenstein's monster, whereas this seems to push what they were doing on "ain't it fun" into a space where there are even fewer obvious referents to rock and emo

also taylor york really loves writing those spiky, fractional guitar riffs that would be marginalia or embellishment in other bands songs and centering them

been hearing a lot of songs with either lackluster or missing bridges lately so i'd like to give it up for the bridge in this song, especially the weird synth/strings(?) tremble

(i can't really say much but) from what i've heard they're really going for it with this album

First thoughts listening to the song:

1. This is wonderful
2. I don't want to hear a whole album of this

It lays it on quite thick. And guessing from the album cover it's not a one-off :/

first single from the s/t was "now" so i'd say it was less than perfect

"Now" ruled, and it was kind of a perfect lead single to the extent that there really was no one, completely representative song from that album, so you might as well just toss something quick and striking out there. ("Ain't It Fun" was the album's takeaway single, but it wouldn't have been as big of a hit if it had been released first; it needed time).

Anyway, so I'd been hoping "Hard Times" would be like "Now," a one-off stylistic tangent on another album filled with them. But that cover screams "nah we're all in on this lol Duran Duran vibe."

"now" ruling is revisionist history, much as i've grown to like it ok contextually bc the album hanging around it rules

feel like i'm more likely to hear "still into you" than "ain't it fun" in the wild in 2017 but this is based on anecdotal evidence

In my experience, it's the reverse.

I'm hoping for a variety of styles on the album as well.

also i hate to be like "read the tea leaves to determine the mood of the record" but that ascap leak upthread implies aaron weiss is on this record and i can't imagine him sing-talking over exposé's "point of no return"

something about this new song is reminding me of foals at their poppiest (i.e. my number)

album cover is the long lost single art for amy grant's "hats" y/n

Foals comparison otm, though Foals never quite pushed the sound into shtick territory the way this song (also video, album cover) does

foals never wrote a song this good let's all relax

I was in love with "Now" at first exposure, because I kinda dug dance-punk back in the day, and the track pulled off the trick of improving on that style by adding some extra tension and mass, and putting a distinctive stamp on it with that very alterna-rock conclusion. Big song in a compact package, even if it was an odd singles choice.

I don't think this song improves on its inspirations in the same way, though it does personalize them in a similar way. Song seems strangely cynical in a way, like this is their attempt to "Uptown Funk" Dire Straits

If anything, I would say it's their attempt to "Get Lucky" the Talking Heads, but it's better than that imo.

foals never wrote a song this good let's all relax

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, April 19, 2017 7:42 AM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao otm

paramore, the vintage contemporaries edition

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, April 19, 2017 8:24 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSn2K3eciSc

Taylor York, can you stop being so hot

thx

I def doubt the whole album will sound same-y. Unless the band completely changed since s/t (I mean they have changed, Farro is back, even co-writing some tracks, but that certainly does not suggest everything sounding like this). Modern Paramore is very much a group that feels playful and eager to explore the border between pop and rock in all kinds of ways.

find it very difficult to not play air synths during that vocoder/synth phrase at the end of "hard times"

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/arts/music/paramore-hayley-williams-after-laughter-interview.html?_r=0

it's a pop album, my friends

Modern Paramore is very much a group that feels playful and eager to explore the border between pop and rock in all kinds of ways.

Yeah they're doing this better than anyone else. I see rock as a little more of a commodity rn, since so few are doing it well, but their past gambits have paid off so I'll happily take a pop album

Looks like I made a mistake reading the YouTube comments on "Hard Times." I forget the ideal of purity their most fervent fans believe in.

I want these sunglasses.

http://i.makeagif.com/media/4-19-2017/tzUSVz.gif

The only track of theirs I rep for is / ain't it fun / which is transcendent. However much I was ready to love this one, it seems to be missing some magic.

im obsessed w/ this song

Same. I heard it six times on the plane.

love this song

yeah I came around on listen 4 or so

last 45 seconds of this sounds like a robot version of shut up and let me go by the ting tings

this was very instant for me and it reminds me of something off the last La Roux album

Taylor York, can you stop being so hot

thx

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, April 19, 2017 11:38 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

His haircut reminds me of one of the NKOTB guys and he does some great mugging in the video.

Love this single. Am I the only one getting massive Alphabeat vibes from the song and video?

His haircut reminds me of one of the NKOTB guys and he does some great mugging in the video.

― how's life,

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2e/52/ff/2e52ff9568955e8c9f21829dcf84d8dd.jpg

I'd been thinking Jordan, actually, but I had remembered his hair as being curlier than it actuallly was.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/02/0e/5a/020e5a2b645d3f7134af044a718c69ca.jpg

HARD
TIMES

XD

this is really good and yeah it sounds EXACTLY like Alphabeat's first album

Part one of an interview with Zane Lowe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Qb2qj58wQ

this maybe is an unfavorable comparison, but the track reminds of "You've Changed" by Sia (with Nick Valensi on guitars)

For no reason whatsoever this song and video both remind me of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3RpfKCPc00

So yeah this is their new sound and they're sticking to it. Another good track though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=189&v=yw-RPm1uOM4

I wonder if this is the track that's gonna get the bigger push on alt radio, while "Hard Times" goes for the top 40 spins

that song rules

paramore's de·pres·sion