Review Summary: Paramore proudly presents a plethora of peppy power pop-punk, portraying potent proficiency and picking a peck of pickled peppers.
Prominently, Paramore produces a premium product, performing peerless, praiseworthy pleasantness and perpetuating a pleasing prestige. And if you’d rather I use the other twenty-five letters of the alphabet, I will pleasantly (sorry) tell you that Paramore has a certain panache (I’ll seriously stop now) about them: between the ultra-catchy, pop-punk hooks and the infectious charisma of Hailey Williams, I, like so many teenyboppers, am downright stricken with this band. After digging up the group’s breakthrough sophomore album
Riot!, what exactly makes this band such a great guilty pleasure?
Back when this album was released in 2007, I took one look at this hot chick backed by meterosexuals, singing about petty junior high drama via “Misery Business”, and simply shook my head and went on with my day. And although the lyrical themes and overall philosophy of the band was completely irrelevant to me, I’ll be the first to admit that Paramore has such a great knack for writing feel-good, infectious, catchy-as-all-hell music. Along with the aforementioned “Misery Business”, songs like “That’s What You Get”, “Let The Flames Begin”, “Fences” and “Born For This” (which perplexingly houses a reference to Refused’s “Liberation Frequency”) will be tracks that you’ll helplessly go back to over and over again. It’s almost a certainty that if you give Hayley’s terrific voice and the boy’s catchy pop-punk/alternative rock songwriting a chance, you’ll be easily hooked.
And what distinguishes
Riot! from the rest of Paramore’s discography, I think, is the album’s consistency:
Riot! is such a smooth, enjoyable listen from start to finish, which is certainly something I can’t say with their other efforts. Even songs that I would consider to be the album’s worst (“When It Rains”, “Miracle” and “We Are Broken”) are still solid efforts and aren’t anything close to a bad song. And what helps the flow of the album are the slight variations from time to time: “That’s What You Get” is a funkier number with a ska feel, “Fences” is a bouncier, salsa inspired number, and “Let The Flames Begin” has a darker tone due the Hayley’s distorted vocals in the chorus. As far as full-length flow goes, this is probably one of the better ones of the genre.
Predominantly, Paramore portrays a picturesque platform and particularly presents a poorly partisan platypus? And unlike my tiring reviewing gimmicks, I guarantee that Paramore will hardly get old if you give them a whirl. Unlike most pop-punk bands, Paramore has a real sense of style about them: if it’s not Hayley Williams and her x-factor qualities, singing her heart out and delivering infectious vocal hooks, then it’s just the downright catchiness of the music. Even if you’re a fickle mush-head like myself, routinely judging books by their cover, I would still give the band a chance, because you’re probably missing out if you don’t otherwise. And if you won’t do it for me, then please, do it for Mr. Peter Piper, because he works hard picking his peck of pickled peppers and is a pious and proud Paramore patron okay I'll stop.
