Paramore are making an official comeback with their first new music in five years, following their last full-length record, After Laughter. In the time since, frontwoman Hayley Williams has released two solo LPs: Petals for Armor and Flowers for Vases/Descansos. Before This Is Why arrives early next year, Paramore will embark on a 12-show North American tour with a portion of ticket sale proceeds being donated to reproductive care and abortion services helping combat the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
On the band’s first release with Atlantic Records—after spending nearly two decades on Fueled by Ramen—Williams and company are tracking the emotional landscape of a post-lockdown world and attempting to provide some kind of semblance to what comes next. The record’s title track and lead single is a return to form and another instance of emo-slanting rock. Accompanying the song is a music video directed by Turnstile vocalist Brendan Yates that was filmed in Malibu.
“‘This Is Why’ was the very last song we wrote for the album,” Williams shared in a press statement. “To be honest, I was so tired of writing lyrics but Taylor [York] convinced Zac [Farro] and I both that we should work on this last idea. What came out of it was the title track for the whole album. It summarizes the plethora of ridiculous emotions, the rollercoaster of being alive in 2022, having survived even just the last three or four years. You’d think after a global pandemic of fucking biblical proportions and the impending doom of a dying planet, that humans would have found it deep within themselves to be kinder or more empathetic or something.”
Watch the video below.
