On one fateful summer in 2004, in the small town of Franklin, Hayley Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro came together to form Paramore. After a few years making music, they stumbled upon a hit single with “Misery Business” on their album Riot! Ever since then, they have become a staple of modern music. With their latest release This Is Why, Paramore for the most part succeeds in their post-punk transition, with a couple musical stumbles along the way. 

Paramore’s last album, After Laughter, came out in 2017. Since then the world has changed in many ways, which gave the group enough content to construct their album. The album came to life from the slow, booming record “Thick Skull.” From there, the album slowly took form, eventually becoming a compact 10 song LP. According to lead singer Hayley Williams, This Is Us is a culmination of the past 5 years of work along with outside social influences. The title itself is a response to misfortune. The group itself shouts a loud “This is why we can’t have nice things.” 

In general, Paramore’s This Is Why is a successful mixture of their previous sounds with some new punk influence. The album starts pretty solid with the title track “This Is Why.” It’s a nifty tune that only gets even groovier with the entry of the bass. Williams’ spacey, slightly high vocals complements the  deeper instrumentals. 

However, there’s a slight hiccup with the second track, “The News.” The grooviness transforms into a heavier guitar that sounds more irritatingly gnawing, alongside deeper vocals that sound more like a mocking imitation of early 2000s punk than a more original sound. The tracklist picks up, however, as “Running Out of Time” is a certified bop. The goofy guitar works to the song’s advantage, Williams’ singing is catchy and memorable, and there are ethereal moments sprinkled throughout the song. 

With the rest of the tracklist, the strengths and weaknesses of the album can easily be deduced. The primary strengths lie where Williams takes a more spacey approach to her vocals, mixed in with a more natural voice. Along with this, the use of more ethereal instrumentals, groovy bass, and prominent piano allows the music itself to be the strongest. For songs like “Big Man, Little Dignity,” “Thick Skull,” and “Liar,” they manage to be more  captivating despite being softer tunes. Williams and the rest are clearly the most comfortable using this sound. Williams specifically reaches some beautiful peaks and valleys with her flexible voice. The instrumentals are also extremely gorgeous and lush, with the guitar samples being especially beautiful on “Big Man, Little Dignity.” 

The problems start to arise when Paramore decide to delve deep into their new sound. While the better songs on the album have a slight punk influence, the tunes that go full-blown post-punk struggle to meet that bar of quality. Both “You First” and “Figure 8” utilize  ear-grating looped samples that make the song frustrating to listen to. The electric guitar sample specifically in “You First” is so rough and irritating,  that it makes the song downright unlistenable. These songs also include Williams’ worst performances. Her vocals in songs like “Figure 8” and “C’est Comme Ça”  sound unpolished and  childish. However, “Figure 8” admittedly has some specific moments of potential in this new post-punk sound. There are times where, maybe with more practice and refinement, Paramore could really create great music using such a style. 

Ultimately, Paramore’s This Is Why partly implements post-punk into half their songs but stumbles to fully capture that specific style. While his album may not be the paramount album of their discography, Paramore has set a good building block to construct a more refined LP in the future.