Brand New Eyes

Brand New Eyes review

An impressive professional growth of each of Paramore members

The American band Paramore conquered the audience back in 2005 releasing an amazingly energetic debut album All We Know Is Falling – then bassist Jeremy Davis left the band and the members felt they were missing something important without him (hence the album title). The rest of the line-up includes vocalist and main songwriter Hayley Williams, lead guitarist Josh Farro, his brother Zac Farro playing drums and rhythm guitarist Taylor York. In 2007 the sophomore effort Riot! followed – Davis got back, everything was where it belonged, and the album received platinum status in the USA and golden in Great Britain. This year the young people are ready to please us with the new creation Brand New Eyes. This record undoubtedly witnesses an impressive professional growth of each of the team members, especially the vocalist – she turns only 21 this winter, and her vocals and songwriter’s talent deserve admiration. Much more mature lyrics, serious musicians’ playing and the producer Rob Cavallo’s quality work – all of it makes Brand New Eyes probably the best album in the band’s discography.

?ontagious mixture of punk, pop music, alternative and emo

The album Brand New Eyes named as the song that has not ended up on the final play-list and tells of a completely new way too see the world, sees the young people still playing the contagious mixture of punk, pop music, alternative and emo. At the same time the songs are remarkable for vivid emotions and often deep thoughts in the lyrics. In the majority of cases these are rather up-tempo, heavy or sometimes lighter compositions such as the album opener, witty track Careful. The first singer Ignorance for which a video has already been shot, pleases with a great bass line and an impressive vocal part, and ironic lyrics add a zest to the song. Williams has summed up her experience in the relationships – both within a band and with the opposite sex – on Brick By Boring Brick, from which one can get quite a number of useful pieces of advice. One of the record’s highlights is the song The Only Exception – the lyrics and the instrumental background here are much more mature here, whereas the calmest song here is Misguided Ghosts. You are sure to have never heard such a mood in Paramore’s music, and such experiment has proved quite successful – both the musicians and the vocalist sound wonderfully harmonious. Another obvious breakthrough is the song All I Wanted – here Hayley demonstrates her best vocals, and the album closes with two great acoustic bonus tracks Ignorance and Where The Lines Overlap.

An obviously higher level in every way

For the first time of its existence Paramore was writing the new songs in the native Nashville, Tennessee, so the guys did not have to spend nights in hotels, but the recording took place in California with Rob Cavallo’s participation. Yet for the first time, too, the band made the songs’ initial songs versions by itself, without a producer at hand, so it caused some conflicts between them, but luckily they did not only make up and discuss everything but also learned to understand each other much better. As for the album Brand New Eyes it is really different from all the band’s previous works with an obviously higher level in every way. Paramore members are progressing seriously, and the main thing is that they have finally started to find their unique sounding on the new record. If before they were simply one of the best young bands playing simple alternative with pop elements, their peers oriented, now some more adult motifs appear in their music which cannot but please. We can be sure that Paramore will continue discovering its potentials in future and that Brand New Eyes follow-up will prove no less successful.