Riot! - Paramore Album Review

Paramore

Album Review

Paramore’s second studio album ‘Riot!’ has caused a storm within the rock community. The band’s breed of pop-rock or emo styled music has won them plaudits from many leading journalists and magazines and my opinion is now different. Their second studio album proves to be much differed from ‘All We Know Is Falling’, being a much lighter sounding album more likely to appeal to the masses.

First single ‘Misery Business’ remains the band’s most successful song to date, with the lyrics being based around a typical teenage girl being cruel clearly became hugely popular amongst their teenage fan base. With Paramore being only in their early twenties and some members even younger, it isn’t surprising they’ve become the new kings (or queens) of emo music. ‘Riot’ allowed the band to achieve this through lead singer Hayley Williams’s phenomenal vocal work. The other three members of the four piece band use very basic and bouncy instrumental work which works much better than trying to drown out Hayley’s voice, with was perhaps the reason ‘All we Know is Falling’ didn’t achieve the same success as their latest release.

The band’s second single ‘Hallelujah’ did poorly, and being a UK only release certainly didn’t help the cause. Their third release ‘CrushCrushCrush’ did a little better, with it receiving much better airtime on TV channels Scuzz, Kerrang!, and MTV2. A re-release of their first single ‘Misery Business’ saw it massively climb up the charts, and help push Paramore into becoming a major band. It was re-released after the band was nominated for best new band at the Grammy award show, only to lose out. The band’s fourth single is to be released soon with ‘That’s What You Get’, a song based around the break-up of a couple. Other notable songs on the album include ‘Fences’, featuring fast paced drums and bass work that compliments this. Hayley’s voice resembles Avril Lavigne’s early work on this song, whilst it also features very catchy instrumental during the middle of the track. This is one of the stronger tracks on the album, whilst final track ‘Born For This’ comes across as a poor addition to ‘Riot’ and is slightly tedious to sit and listen to.

Paramore have made a real winner here; they’ve nailed their target audience spot on and worked utilising Hayley Williams’s voice extremely well. They have also become one of the first bands to fit into the emo genre without singing about the need for death and depression, their bouncy and upbeat songs could easily fit in amongst the pop or pop-punk genre too. The only issue for Paramore is how they’re going to follow up this album; it’s going to take some doing from the young Americans.

Tom Crowther