Review Summary: Oh, snap, it’s no joke.
Emo Classics Series: Episode V
If you do notice my previous reviews in this series, all the bands whose albums I reviewed are actually led by a male frontman, and even have a full-male lineup. However, Riot!, the sophomore effort of
Paramore, led by the unmistakable red-haired Hayley Williams, gave us feminine anthems with a powerful thrashing yet poppy sound that recalls other punk-pop acts like
Fall Out Boy, bringing in a fresh air in this male-dominated genre. Needless to say, they really made a riot within the Emo scene in this iconic album.
To kick things off, I started by listening to the album’s opening track, “For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic”. The song, in which Williams confronts her not-so-loyal boyfriend for tricking her (“I'm not so naive, my sorry eyes can see”), not being into the relationship wholeheartedly (“You were finished long before we had even seen the start”), and, in the chorus, she accused boyfriend for throwing her faith away. Although the lyrics are a little blunt and the instrumentations may be singular to say the least, it does give a very clear statement: A man should never betray his romantic partner for any reason. It may be your typical angry breakup song, but it is a pretty optimistic way to begin in this album.
The promise comes true with “That’s What You Get”. Unlike the angsty “For a Pessimist…”, this thrashing song recounts a breakup and its aftermath, in which the lover’s thinkings are dominated by his feeling. In the song, Williams claimed to him that his emotions only lead to the downfall of their relationship (“I can't decide /You have made it harder just to go on”) and loathed that it only gets worse, with the deepening feelings only harming each other (“Why do we like to hurt so much❓”). In the chorus, she warned him that it will only end up in a lose-lose situation in the relationship if he let his emotions get the better of him. With such deep lyrics and the quiet-loud dynamics that recalls the Pixies, as well as Williams’ chanting vocals and poppier tune, this song serves as a brilliant successor that draws the overall thrashing yet poppy sound and the feminine theme of this album.
However, the band goes for a more personal orientation in “Hallelujah”. Unlike the previous two songs which has punky guitars, this song has a more luminous guitar leads. The rock ballad actually retrospect about themselves having nothing at the time (“Got nothing but time on our hands”), but then Williams sings about not giving up and ready to make the band last forever in the chorus. This song also can be comprehended as a counter of “That’s What You Get”, as it also portrays a failing romance, with the lovers going through the hard times of the relationship and finding ways to mend the bridge. This album highlight captures our emotional struggle of facing difficulties in a fine accuracy, all in the while inspiring us to stand up and face them, showcasing Williams have a knack of creating universal balladry.
Then, Williams and co. returns to their punk-pop roots and teenage drama in the sardonic centrepiece “Misery Business”. In the song, Williams boasted that she was in the “business of misery” and taking it from the top, how she waited eight months to wait for the other girl to set her boyfriend free and then catch him at such moment, while pissing her off (“She's got it out for me, but I wear the biggest smile”). She then also detailed that she was not willing to give any second chances to the girl when she begs for one because, well, she was nothing more than a whore (talk about a leopard can't change its spots in a blunt way), and she also claimed she is not going to be another whore like her (“It's easy if you do it right /Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!”). What makes this song so particularly memorable, is that Williams’ spit her acidic verses in quick, rap-like speed, and the explosive guitars and drums and Williams’ howling vocals in the chorus (try not to sing to even lip-sync the “whoa” at the beginning of the chorus), where she claims stealing a boyfriend from a girl is something that feels good. It is one anthem that really captures the teenage romantic drama that many would experience, and the hooks are perhaps catchier than “That’s What You Get”, which explains why this song is one of the band’s most recognised songs.
However, Paramore goes really Emo in “When It Rains”. Despite the song retaining every Paramore’s hallmark, including the hard-hitting drums and Williams’ towering vocals, this track is perhaps the most melancholy track in the album, as Williams mourns a friend who committed suicide as a cause of depression, as she described him making a bed at the bottom of the blackest hole and convinced himself that he is not going to see the sun, all in the while self-loathes that she couldn’t see it coming and get to understand him in order to prevent the tragedy in the chorus(“No, oh, I need an ending /So, why can't you stay just long enough to explain❓”). In the end, Williams sings “You can take your time, take my time”, as if she imagines that she is by his side to listen to his troubles. This may not capture the view of a depression patient, yet it still portrays the sadness of depression and suicide beautifully, as well as showcasing the vulnerable side of Williams herself.
The following tracks are also undeniably decent:”Let The Flames Begin” is a blistering anthem of keeping your faith during hard times, as she details about relighting her hopes (“I give it all my oxygen to let the flames begin /So let the flames begin”) and forgetting her troubles she caused while using it as her strength (“Somewhere weakness is a strength, and I'll die searching for it”), while claiming that she and her friends will dance together when the troubles are getting the better of them in the chorus; “Miracle” is another song that discusses depression and self-hate, yet this time is in the perspective of Williams herself, as she prays to God about starting her faith again (“So I'm gonna start over tonight /Beginning with you and I”) and ready to start over everything (“We'll get it right this time /Let's leave this all behind”), all the while claiming that she is not giving up on a miracle in the perspective of God, as it might save herself. Even though these tracks showcases the diversity and depth of the band themselves, they unfortunately falls into the redundancy of the materials, as “Let The Flames Begin” seems to replicate the theme of “Hallelujah” in a harsher sound, while “Miracle” sounds like a more demonic version of “When It Rains”.
Williams and co. then move on to a more aggressive sonic territory in “Crushcrushcrush”. In the song, Williams sings about the crushes between the her and a male lover (“I noticed your eyes are always glued to me”), yet the rumours made by his friends distanced them, leading him to be less serious on the relationship (“If you wanna play it like a game /Well, come on, come on, let's play”), and, eventually, she herself to be more monstrous. In the chorus, Williams hoped she could spend an evening with the boy alone, yet she knew it was only a dream, which achingly portrays the dark side of having a crush on someone, as such crush may never blossom to a serious romance due to insecurities of ones’ friends. Lyrics aside, the punchy guitars throughout the song and the “1,2,3,4” in the pre-chorus gave the track a sense of countdown, which made it sounds like a bomb was ticking to explosion. In short, this intensely memorable track will really make the word “crush” sounds more dangerous than you ever heard before.
The band returns to the melancholic territory in the piano-aided and string-laden ballad “We Are Broken”. In the sadness-and-hope-duel track, she detailed the pain of a sex worker in the perspective of the victim, which includes working through the clock in order to make ends meets(“I am outside and I've been waiting for the sun” and “It came to me tonight /So everyone will have a choice /And under red lights, I'll show myself it wasn't forged”), while hoping to wash away her sins (“Give us life again /Cause we just wanna be whole”). In this ballad/anthem, Williams’ used her christian background very wisely, which flourish it as a beautiful track.
The last two tracks, “Fences” and “Born For This”, show Williams herself is also capable of penning decent career-introspecting songs: With the funk-infused former, this song details how she as a celebrity deals with the paparazzi and public eye, in which she lamented about being monitored heavily by both of them (“I'm sitting in a room made up of only big white walls /And in the halls, there are people looking through the window in the door”) as she has to behave well as a role model (“You're always on display for everyone to watch and learn from”), the fact that she could not separate her public life from her private one (“The constant battle that you hate to fight /Just blame the limelight”) and, in the chorus, she stated that she is dying from the inside and only can fake her smile in the public (the latter of which perhaps later inspire her to write “Fake Happy” in After Laughter); while the heavier latter is a kiss off to critics about the criticisms they received at the time, with Williams bashed them for being narrow-minded (“And it takes acquired minds to taste, to taste, to taste this wine /You can't down it with your eyes”), while moaning about facing overwhelming expectations in the chorus and stating that they are not making a band just to earn money, but to let fans to listen to their music. The two tracks really showed Williams is an accomplished lyricist, as she displayed her depths of being a strong, brash front-woman and a vulnerable individual simultaneously with the themes of fame (“Fences”) and public criticism (“Born For This”), with the band playing punchy punk-rock melodies to complement such duality, making both of them as some of the understated tracks in their catalog.
Overall, this album might lack the diversity in terms of material, as I wish that she could tone down her christian background and references a little bit (she uses them in “Hallelujah”, “Miracle” and “We Are Broken”), and it was also plagued by the fact that it is a bit too reliant on the choruses. However, it still shines brightly with its brilliant formula of fierce punk-pop spirit and the newfound feminine yet still broad and universal view with deadly wits, as well as the fact that it was elevated by Williams’ generally refined and deep songwriting and plenty amount of well-crafted hooks, a slightly flawed yet impressive Emo-pop artefact. Sure, Riot! does not have the heavy doses of dark melodrama like some other Emo peers such as
Brand New,
My Chemical Romance and
The Used, but this album, among many Emo-pop classic, also proofs that a great Emo album doesn’t have to contain such quality, it can just be a documentary of the songwriters having teen issues which we all can relate to with ferocious punk riffs and pop sensibility. Even though Williams no longer bears the iconic fiery red hair like in the Riot! era (or at least before the After Laughter era), this is one album that we can treasure for generations.
