Brand New Eyes by Paramore: A Review

An In-depth Review of Paramore's Latest Effort

Salvatore Pisciotta, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 1, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

As a side note, I'm sure readers (are you out there?!) are wondering why I've spoken nothing but volumes of praises for the albums I've reviewed thus far. Remember when mother said "If you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say it?" Well, that's the mantra I'm taking here. I listen to a lot of music and I've heard a lot of things I like and some things I dislike, but the thing is, there's sites and magazines that review records and run scathing reviews. Paper Birds is different and I'm not putting out reviews of that sort. I understand that tastes vary, but at least give an album a fair listen while you work out, drive, or something of that sort. In those cases, no time wasted, no love lost. Let's keep it positive and listen to some good music.

All the best.

I first heard of Paramore a few years ago. I think it was one of those late-night MTV-sponsored commercials. If I'm not mistaken, the ad was for their debut "All We Know Is Falling", so it had to be around 2005 or early 2006. I was intrigued by it. I usually despised anything MTV-sponsored--no one likes a product force-fed, but a female in a rock band was a cool idea, not unheard of by any means, but this was almost a pop-punk style. Despite my indie tastes now, I grew up listening to a lot of alternative rock and pop punk, so this was a cool sound. I looked the band up on myspace shortly after and, while I really enjoyed the music, I was rather discouraged to see they were extremely popular, especially with a crowd I had regarded as "scene people" who jumped on a bandwagon the second a band broke. But, eventually, I just grew to hate such a label--if people want to be fake or trendy, let them--it's not hurting you and shouldn't hurt your tastes. This was my time where I turned against my staunch indie ideals at the age of 15 or so and decided I could listen to anything I want--I love music, and music it is! So, here we are, a few years later in September of 2009. Paramore's latest effort, Brand New Eyes, is set to drop September 29, 2009 and it's a fantastic record. Let's have a listen through.

"Careful" starts off with pounding drums and overdriven guitar. This particular track sounds like something off the first album, which isn't a bad thing and could potentially add variety to the album. It finds Williams go from speak-singing in the tamer verses to full out belting at the edge of her range in the giant-sounding chorus. She does it well and it sounds great. I was grateful that the guitar tone changed a bit in the solo/bridge as it added variety to the song. "You can't be too careful anymore" Williams belts, and it sounds like she's taken a cue from the success of the track "Misery Business" in terms of writing from a personal view. Great opening track all around.

Ignorance - Riot fans will be happy--a song filled with Paramore hallmarks including a refrain such as "Ignorance is your new best friend". The chrous sounds similar to some others from Riot, but as I said, more in the way that it's a Paramore-type chorus. The first version I heard of this song was an acoustic version, so it's cooler to hear it in the louder full-band full-volume setting. As previously stated, sounds stylistically like Riot.

"Playing God" is a poppy track--it reminds me of something out of the 90's. It opens at a much slower tempo with guitar arpeggios with a chorus effect and the guitars aren't extremely overdriven in the chorus. A nice change of pace in the album and catchy as hell. I really like the way her voice goes from the chorus to the verse in the lines "next time you point a finger, I'll point you to the mirror" the first time around. I'm surprised this wasn't done in an acoustic environment. Musically and vocally, the band could sure as hell pull it off, but I suppose the sentiment expressed in lyrics such as "next time you point a finger, I might have to bend it back or break it off" wouldn't exactly carry over in such a space. Nonetheless, this is another nice track on a, thus far, pretty solid album. I could understand what a friend of mine meant in saying that this album seemed more personal.

With "Brick By Boring Brick", we're back in the rock tempo. Different style of guitars--a riff instead of chords. I like these stylistic changes they've made before. We have a typical Paramore-style verse--quiet, drums, bass, then have the guitars come in, a quieter pre-chorus, then give us a louder chorus. Kudos to Zac Farro for his drumming, strange to think he's only a year older than myself. The bridge has a cool little solo. The feedback in the second verse reminds me of when it's done in a working version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (As a side note, the feedback in the last verse of the final version of Smells Like Teen Spirit was present but turned down to a great degree leading it to be difficult to hear.) We have a quieter sentimental bridge, with a guitar that sounds like it has a wet-sounding phaser on it. I like the belt Williams throws out there before moving in to the chorus. Josh Farro's backing vocals are present in the bridge as the song builds up, bringing Hayley and the rest of the instrument in to a nice crescendo before stopping right at the apex.

A cool little chord progression begins "Turn it Off". As I said, nice variety--I'm really glad the sound varies on this album. Quiet verse, adding a bit to it as we go on. Farro's a really good guitar player--he might not be Hendrix, but he does excellent in adding to Paramore's songs. I suppose I have to give Farro and Williams joint credit for a job well done on this track. Hayley lets it rip in the bridge of this track and it sounds excellent--I can't say enough good things about her voice. Longer track times, in the case of this band, mean more breakdowns and bridges--cool stuff.

At this point, depending upon which version of the album you have, we may be to the halfway point. The track listings vary from 11-15 songs.

Here we go--I've been waiting for an acoustic song and the thought has been granted in "The Only Exception". Williams voice is one I've been waiting to hear with a song written for acoustic instruments and not just played on them--here's one, finally. Kind of a poppy song, one I think to be quite radio-friendly. In short, I'd expect it to be a single at some point in the future. The bass comes in, quite prominent in the mix and it adds to the sound quite nicely. "You are the only exception" Williams sings, in what sounds like a lover's lament. Yet, the song is not without a shouting segment, present in the bridge, serving as a climax of emotion. It's a bit of a jump from the more rock-oriented songs, but a welcome change.

We're back to the rock-oriented tracks when we're led into "Feeling Sorry". The chorus is a good old-fashioned catchy refrain. We're back to Paramore pulling their old tricks--and I fall for them. The heavy palm-mutes in the verse remind me of much heavier rock, not a bad thing. This track resides more in the pop-rock realm, almost a Kelly Clarkson type of feel except more in line with rock--'tis fine with me.

Onto "Looking Up"! This sounds a bit like a few of the ones before--quieter, palm-muted verse into a pop-rock chorus. Not a bad track, just a formula I've heard from them several times before. On the flip side, I do enjoy the bridge. Not much else to be said for it.

"Where The Lines Overlap" is one of the bonus tracks issued on some copies of the album as an acoustic bonus track. It has a different feel, which I think is good, I like the little guitar riff in with the chords. Also nice how the music cuts out before leading into the chorus, a nice stylistic difference. This sounds a bit like it'd be on an indie track--as a big indie fan, I enjoy it. Probably one of my leading tracks on the album. The palm-muted bridge is a nice touch leading into the extended portion of the bridge and then the chorus. I'm rather happy this ended with an instrumental outro--a good stylistic change.

We move into "Misguided Ghosts", began with one of the Farro's counting one, two, three. Another acoustic track--alright! As an indie fan, I'm not a stranger to songs like this. This particular track sounds a bit like something Conor Oberst may write. As good a singer as Williams is, it's good to hear her tone it done in some tracks--this being one of them. As I've said several times before, I glad there's some variety on the album. It helps to break it up and make the tracks more memorable. A bit of an acoustic outro, albeit for ten or so seconds to end the song.

The last track, "All I Wanted" is another down-tempo one, at least for the first minute or so. This track sounds extremely familiar to me and I have no idea why. I liked that it went from a slower tempo to a faster one--makes the song unique from the others in that respect. In this chorus, Hayley really pushes her voice--it sounds insane. (Good insane, that is, I hope it sounds just as good live.) The final 15 seconds is dominated by distortion and harmonics. With that, we're through!

Overall, I enjoyed the album. It had moments of both "Riot" and "All We Know Is Falling". Kudos to the band for a job well done! A good deal of the tracks sounded similar to "Riot", but it's their trademark sort of sound, so it's to be expected. A few tracks sounded familiar, but it may be because I'm extremely familiar with many of the bands that the members of Paramore are influenced by. At least they didn't pull an AC/DC and made same-sounding records for thirty years, right? A solid third album. I don't know if it'll eclipse "Riot", but it just might. Paramore fans won't be disappointed. You'll be hearing some of these on the radio in no time.

Track Listing (Standard Edition--bonus tracks listed below)