Hello, everyone. Welcome to another album review, this one being a review of Paramore’s sixth studio album, This Is Why.

Recently, I’ve gotten myself more familiar with Paramore’s music, and after listening to all of their first five albums, well … as controversial as it is, I just haven’t been able to get into this band. After five albums, you’d think they’d have more songs that I legitimately love, but they only have a few. I get the appeal of this band, and I can tell they put a lot of effort into their music, but I just personally get bored listening to their music. And part of that is due to a lot of the vocal melodies boring me, and it’s also partially due to the production. And while the lyrics are well-written, it doesn’t mean I personally get much out of them.

One thing I find so interesting about this band, though, is that they don’t have a lot of terrible songs in my opinion, they just don’t have a lot of songs I love, or even particularly like. A lot of them are songs that I find pleasant enough while they’re on but don’t see a reason for me to go back to. Again, that’s a me thing, and I get the appeal of this band … I just personally am not a Paramore fan.

Honestly, I don’t really like any of their first five albums … Brand New Eyes and their self-titled album are my favourites of those five, because at least I love one song on each of those albums (“Playing God” and “Still Into You”, if you’re curious which ones), but even those albums don’t really click for me as full albums.

Paramore have gotten a ton of critical acclaim, so after seeing so much critical acclaim for their new album, I can’t say it really brought up my expectations much, if at all, because I’ve seen so much critical acclaim for their music already, and it just hasn’t clicked for me much at all. But I decided to give it a chance. So, what do I think of this album?

Hmmm … how do I explain this?

Well, like I said, my expectations for this album weren’t very high, but if I’m being honest, I think I ended up liking this even less than I thought I would. And this is probably my least favourite Paramore album to date. I’m not saying, ‘This album is trash,’ I’m just saying that I personally got so little out of it.

So, why do I feel the way I do about this album?

Well, a big part of it is the vocal melodies. To me, the vocal melodies just sound like they meander and don’t really go anywhere … and I’m bad at describing which vocal melodies I like and which ones I don’t, so it’s hard for me to explain why I don’t like most of these vocal melodies, but they just don’t stick with me much.

For example, the vocal melodies in “Liar” just don’t interest me at all, and when the instrumental bores me so much and it just feels like the song drags on, it leads to one of my least favourite tracks here. “Crave” and “Thick Skull” are some other examples of songs in which the vocal melodies really bore me.

But then there’s the production, another big reason why I don’t like this album. In a lot of these songs, it feels like each instrument was produced for a different song. For example, in “The News”, where the vocals are mixed so loudly in the chorus, and throughout the track the vocal production feels really out of place with the instrumental, and the drums and guitar don’t sound very good together in my opinion. Another example is the track, “Figure 8” … even though Hayley Williams is a great singer, the vocals sound out of place over this instrumental, due to what sounds like some sort of vocal effect.

But at least with most of Paramore’s albums up to this point, I’ve at least liked a song or two … and that’s not really the case here. I mean, there are a few tracks here that I find enjoyable while they’re on, but nothing that really stands out to me in a positive way.

The title track dropped as the lead single in September of 2022, and I wasn’t a big fan of it, but after hearing the album, I can say it’s one of my favourite tracks here, if not my favourite … and I’m not even really a fan of it. I don’t really like the vocal layering in the chorus, and the verses are pretty boring musically in my opinion. I think the lyrics are interesting, though, and I mostly like the production.

And speaking of the lyrics, I like some of them, but some of them feel kind of generic. But maybe that’s just a me thing … again, I said they ‘feel’ generic, not necessarily that they are … and also, there’s nothing wrong with having generic lyrics, it’s just that there’s not much musically that I really like here, and the lyrics aren’t saving this album for me. And some of these lyrics clearly have a lot to them, but they just don’t do much for me personally.

And now here’s another question: what do I like about the album?

Well … not a whole lot, but there are some things I want to point out. For example, those awesome guitars in the chorus of the title track! I also like the lyrics in “Running Out Of Time” which seem to be about … well … what the title of the song would imply. I also like the lyrics in “Big Man, Little Dignity”, which I may totally be interpreting wrong, but here’s how I interpret it: Hayley sings about people who aren’t held accountable for their actions, and sings from the perspective of a stalker who’s following somebody else around everywhere they go, but then you realize that maybe she’s not even singing from the perspective of a person, instead singing from the perspective of morals, as if morals are following the stalker everywhere the stalker goes, as if morals are stalking the stalker and trying to get the person to stop being a stalker.

But overall, this album just didn’t click for me at all. And with everything I said, as well as the stiff-sounding snare in “Thick Skull”, the annoying rhythm of the percussion in “Figure 8”, and that SUPER annoying hook in “C’est Comme Ça” … to me this felt like a slog to get through.

So, yeah, once again, I had a really hard time getting into a Paramore album … but even as someone who already wasn’t a fan of them, I expected to like this more.

So, yeah, this is probably going to be one of my most controversial reviews, but if I’m being totally honest here … for me, it’s a strong 3/10. I get the appeal of it, and I can tell there was a ton of effort put in, but I personally couldn’t get into it at all. Don’t put too much value in that rating, because—like always—the rating is just based on how much or how little I like the album. It’s not me trying to come up with an ‘objective rating’ for the album, whatever that means.

Anyway, feel free to let me know in the comment section down below what you thought of this album, and/or what you thought of my review. If you don’t like this review, that’s totally fine … just like it’s totally fine that I don’t like the album.

And I’m going to leave it at that for now … if you hate me now, I understand. But I want to make it clear that none of my reviews are meant as a personal attack on anyone, I’m just some person on the internet writing about my own personal feelings toward the music I’m listening to. I respect the album a lot, it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks for reading this review, and feel free to let me know if there’s any albums you want me to review.

I’m excited to post my final two year-end lists for 2022, and they’ll be out soon … hopefully. Anyway, thanks for reading!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 3/10
Favourite Tracks: ???
Least Favourite Tracks: “C’est Comme Ça”, “Figure 8”, “Liar”, “Crave”, “Thick Skull”