Paramore - After Laughter (May 12th, 2017) Album • Page 73

ive enjoyed mewithoutyou on occasions, but never fully clicked. this song is cool just because its on a paramore album, and maybe someone will listen to it and check out mewithoutyou.

 

YouwithoutmewithoutYou

 

Yea I've tried mewithoutYou, and I always enjoy it while I listen, but it's never clicked.

I like the song though, I actually think it works really well as a penultimate track. It has a sense of like kind of everything coming to a head for me. It's not far off from how in Futures Hayley takes a step back at the end. I feel like it was very intentionally put in the spot it's at.

 

I'm sure its placement in the tracklisting is entirely intentional and exactly where the band wanted it; that's not the kind of track you just haphazardly throw in and let it end up wherever it may. But so far it just feels awkward in the tracklisting to me, though I've only listened to the album 3 times and have only recently gotten access to the lyrics (which help me better understand its placement).

 

mwY are my favorite band but they're also not a band that's easy to get into.

I think it's incredibly impressive that Paramore and specifically Haley let Aaron sing on one of their songs without Haley. That's a bold move and I love it. But these are two of my favorite songwriters so I'm biased

 

Exactly. I've had albums where everyone loves a single track and then I feel like I'm out of place if I don't. But for After Laughter I really feel like everyone gets something different out of it, which is great.

I'm a stan for S/T all the way. That album is what propelled Paramore into one of my favorite bands. I was really put off by "Hard Times" because of it, but this album is capturing something a little different for me.

 

Yea I have thoughts on why it works, but I've only had one listen where i was like really paying attention, so I'll probably formulate my thoughts a little better later. I could see why someone would think it was a little jarring though, so I understand (I also had the advantage of already knowing that it was going to be like that before I got to it, so when I heard it, I knew that's what it would be like).

 

I have some thoughts on this album, it's really quite a journey from beginning to end.

This is album for someone struggling with adulthood, no doubt in my mind. It's also an album of playing with contrasts. While every Paramore album seems to have a unifying theme of a single feeling, this album has multiple themes, but tied together tonally and sonically. Hayley's lyrics have never been more raw or dark, yet the music behind her is often rhythmic and layered.

I'm really quite astounded by what they captured here. There's rawness and restraint in different tracks. I think "Fake Happy" really hits me because of how Hayley sings in it. I can honestly hear the sadness and anger in her vocals. The drums, bass lines, guitar work, and all the other instrumentation throughout the album is really layered and complex.

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that Hayley seems to have merged her voice into what the rest of the band came up with, which really makes it lock in. In the past, they'd have songs that seem to be solely there to feature her vocals, which is obviously a good thing, but the way she had to find her moments without taking away from the music is really extraordinary to me. I think it also helps me appreciate the lyrics she wrote, because there were times that she was clearly limited in how much she could say in a song and had to express it in a simpler way that worked for the vocals.

As someone who's favorite album was S/T, this was a hard sound for me to accept at first, but it turns out that they found a way to be more raw, while also finding a way to be more polished and locked in.

 

Need this on vinyl so badly

 

Yeah there's only been a few negative reactions, people always overstate how much negativity there really is when most people like something, probably because the negative reactions tend to stick out more but it seems the vast majority of this thread is super into it

 

after a couple listens, wow this album is actually really great, the first half is solid and more on the poppy side with some really great moments like fake happy but the second half especially, is incredible, it's very experimental while still coming together as a cohesive whole. i'm impressed by the layering and the guitar work. and "no friend" is possibly the biggest risk they've taken so far and it really paid off. the whole thing is groovy and captures emotions really well and just the right hints of all the best parts of paramore while trying something completely new. amazing!

 

It would be a bolder move if they let us actually hear Aaron. Still not a fan of what they did to him in the mix. Could've been a much better song and feature if he was audible. It took me a solid minute to realize there was someone even doing something under the music. It's a really weird track that could've been unique but was executed poorly. Really my only complaint on the album besides hard times still not clicking with me, mostly because the end of the chorus is super clunky and awkward

 

I thought about that, too. I'm honestly not familiar enough with the lyrics on Riot and BNE to notice more than the most obvious references ("Riot," "Misguided Ghosts," etc.). I'm still not sure whether that would validate a songwriting credit -- and I still assume Hayley had more to do with the song than her old stuff being referenced.

 

It's executed just fine and sounds good to me but that's just me

 

I mean yeah just giving my opinion on it

 

So am I....

 

Absolute need. I am going to be obsessively checking until it ends up announced.

 

Listened to this while I went for a run. Good decision. Good record to have on while moving around.

And it's like 75 and sunny so really perfect weather to match the album.

 

I'm totally down with this album sonicly but the hooks just strike me as WEAK.

 

Definitely not weak. Just different. It took a couple listens for a few of the hooks to hit me but this might be my favorite vocal performance of Hayley's to date. Some incredible work here.

Not as many soaring melodies as in the past, but the hooks here are more dynamic than they've ever been.

 

anyone remember States? Grudges reminds me of States.

 

I love you.

 

Mewithoutyou has been a top 10 favorite band of all time for me for a long time, but I totally understand how a fan of this record may not like them. Doesn't change the fact that I'm super happy that this exists and am proud of the band for having the courage to do something outside of the box like this.

 

Maybe that was my problem -- it's cold and rainy here! haha

 

How many times have you listened now?