Riot! - Paramore

Paramore are a band who are there to be knocked down. Signed to Pete Wentz's label Decaydance, a part of Fueled By Ramen, who are responsible for throwing out a large number of emo bands dominating the independent and mainstream charts at the moment, for example Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy. Paramore are also essentially an emo band in the meaning of the word, creating loud, powerful pop-punk music for the charts and fans of pop music.

Yet Paramore has a lot more to offer. They are packed full of horrendously catchy tunes, and have an excellent, charismatic frontwoman in the form of 17/18 year old Hayley Williams. She provides a strong, confident voice to make the songs reach higher levels which puts them ahead of a lot of their peers, and have overcome obstacles that have caused other emo bands to stumble.

And so the album begins. Starting with 'For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic', a typical emo song title. The song begins loud, creating a great opening effect designed to bring the listener in. And around the two minutes forty seconds mark comes in some of the most interesting and exciting guitar work I've heard in emo, which counteracts the rest of the songs power-chord punk.

The next song 'That's What You Get' is typical emo, with it's emotional vocals over loud, heavy guitars. But it's the next two songs that really showcase their talents. 'Hallelujah' begins with an ear-bleeding opening hook, and leads into the driving melody of the song. And the chorus alone gives emo another 4 years of shelf life, with Hayley Williams singing in a drawn out falsetto, "Hallelujah!/Let's make this last forever!" And the second song, the single "Misery Business", is an abrasive song about infidelity claiming "once a whore/you're nothing more/I'm sorry that'll never change." It contains all the ingredients for a great pop single - sing along lyrics, strong hook-laden melody, and sex appeal. It is what drew me to the album, and a good start for anyone interested in buying the album, and for people who are unfamiliar with this genre.

The next three songs, 'When It Rains', 'Let The Flames Begin' and 'Miracle' sound like old standards. They are very typical emo songs, but are driven by Hayley Williams vocal talents which give them more and turn into more worthwhile listens. These, however, are not as good as the rest of the album, though they are good songs and worthwhile listens.

The next song 'Crushcrushcrush' , however, is back onto outstanding level. It is a 3 minute assault of a song, beginning with a synth driven verse, heading onto a moody pre chorus, into a power chord driven assault of a chorus with possibly the most quaint and contented lyric ever in a song from this field. "Nothing compares to/a quiet evening alone" suggests that Hayley would rather be at home curled up with a good book then on tour sleeping with groupies every night.

The next track 'We Are Broken' goes back to standard emo again unfortunately, which is a shame, which makes the better tracks sounding even more powerful, totally outweighing the few weaker tracks. This is more of a ballad, which unless you are a fan, can lead you to the skip button.

However, the last two tracks 'Fences' and 'Born For This' leave the album on a high note, with 'Fences' sounding like Panic! At The Disco fronted by a sex-driven woman, and 'Born For This' heading into punk territory, with a shouty backing vocal and waspy vocal from Miss Williams, but with a vocal suggesting that her and the band thrive of the hype surrounded by the band.

Overall, this is an album of two sides. Half of the tracks are some of the best songs written in the field and showcase them as a band who can create great guitar pop music, without sacrificing any of their appeal. However, the other half sounds like old standards. They are still good songs, but sound overdone and a bit tired, leading you to like them first but grow tired of them after some time. This album is worthy of its 4 star rating - just - as the excellent songcraft of the majority of the songs make this a must buy for fans of the genre and people wanting to hear more emo.

Download:
Hallelujah
Misery Business
Crushcrushcrush