Day 17: The Sounds of Writing Part 6

January 12, 2010

For my number three I chose two albums. They are from the same band and I bought them within a week of each other, so to me they go hand in hand together. Which may be considered cheating if it was for someone else's list, but since I make the rules, I allowed it.

3. Paramore: Brand New Eyes/Riot! 2009/2007

For the past five or six years now I have been doing something that some may consider odd. At the beginning of the year I find something that I do not like and slowly through out the year, I train myself to like it. It is usually with food items such as Tomatoes, Coffee, Tea, things of that nature. This past year though, I decided to set my sights on a different kind of item; a band. The band was obviously Paramore and it took me a good half year to warm up to these guys. The back story to this starts at the beginning of 2009. I had heard of Paramore before I actually heard any of there music and it was not until "Decode", their song off of the "Twilight" soundtrack, that I actually did hear one of their songs. I heard "Decode" in late 2008 and loved it. This made me go out and buy an album by them, which is what I did.

I went to the store and grabbed their first album entitled, "All We Know Is Falling". I put the album on and after two or three listens through, decided it was garbage. I was really bummed to say the least. Here was a band that had this sweet song off of the "Twilight" soundtrack and their album was terrible. I mean, it is a pop/rock band with a female lead singer, how the hell could I not like them. I would periodically check back with the album I bought and it never got better. Never before in my life have I ever listened to an album that I disliked more then this one.

Fast Forward a couple of months. In June I went down to visit some friends in North Carolina. While I was there we went to go see "No Doubt" at this really sweet outdoor venue and low and behold, "Paramore" was the opening act. I was naturally bummed as I figured that they sucked at this point and was kind of willing to waive the white flag. One of my friends on the other hand, was very excited about this prospect as she was a huge fan of theirs. As we were driving around one afternoon she told me about her excitement and decided to put on their album, their second album that is. Now whether or not I knew they had a second album at the time, I don't remember, but after listening to the majority of it decided that maybe there was still a chance for me to like them.

The next night at the concert, they took the stage and literally kicked the crowd's ass. They put on a live show that most main attractions are not able to pull off. Hayley Williams vocals are a sonic wonder and the band sounded pitch perfect throughout the 45 minute set. At this time I was basically reassured again that I would like this band and was ready to get back on the bandwagon. The only problem with that was the next band that took the stage. "No Doubt" was so amazing that it all but erased the Paramore performance, along with my soon to be obsession.

It wasn't until October that I remembered about the band and went out and bought their new album, "Brand New Eyes". As soon as I heard the album though, I was in full Paramore obsession mode. I immediately went out and bought not only the CD of "Riot!", but also the Vinyl(which is white by the way and looks amazing). My roommate can attest to this obsession, due to the fact that I basically listened to nothing beyond Paramore for a good month period. Luckily for him, he doesn't mind the band so much, but I can only imagine how annoying it must have been.

Both albums are pretty similar in style, though "Riot!" is easily more radio friendly than "Behind New Eyes". With songs like "That's what you get", "Misery Business" and "Crushcrushcrush" the album is full of energy and attitude. That's not to say that "Brand New Eyes" is devoid of radio hits. "Ignorance" is just as catchy as "Misery Business" and with "Brick by Boring Brick", the band now has an anthem to go by. "Playing God" has an Avril Lavigne sound going for it, which depending on your opinion of Avril, can go either way(I think Avril rules so it was a good thing to me). There is an overall darker feel to "Eyes", a feel that is most likely a result of producer Rob Cavallo's involvement. Cavallo, who has produced Green Day's "American Idiot", My Chemical Romances "The Black Parade" and Jewel's "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland"(I bet you didn't know that one.), is felt on this album enough to change it up a bit, without taking anything away the band itself.

There are even two slow songs on the album. Though I will admit it took me a while to get used to them. Hayley at first seemed a bit out of her element on "The Only Exception", but with time I've grown to like it. Overall I think I like "Eyes" better as a whole, but after listening to both of them back to back, it is incredibly hard for me to come out with a resounding champion. Though they are not the only band that sounds like this(Hey Monday and Automatic Loveletter do the sound very nicely as well), they are a nice change from the "Nickelback" garbage that has seemed to dominate the majority of this past decades pop/rock scene.

Sorry for the novel again, but this thing kind of wrote itself. See back here again tomorrow, hopefully I can conclude this thing sometime soon. If not, I'll just write about something else. It may not be very constructive, but it is fun being your own editor.