The Beat Surrender

Paramore are shocking me left right and centre at the moment. Sure they’ve had some good singles in the past making them the acceptable face (particualarly Ms Williams) of emo inspired rock, but I never envisaged a time when i’d give an album by them four out of five.

Emo as a genre is shocking, but this is album is the sound of a group growing beyond that and spreading their wings musically, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Brand New Eyes is their White Album or Sgt Peppers, but it’s a bloody good record for so many reasons.

The first thing of note is the songwriting, intelligent, meaningful lyrics are scattered liberally on tracks like Ignorance, Playing God, Brick By Boring Brick, Feeling Sorry and All I Wanted.

Then you get Hayley Williams voice, it’s fragile and beautiful on the slower almost acoustic tracks like The Only Exception and Misguided Ghosts, yet she can crank it up and do the powerful stuff as well, either style of song she’s equally as emotive and it’s impressive stuff.

The final thing to praise is the music itself, not relying on similar chords for every song and someone banging recklessly away on the drums, there is real musicianship and craft in these tracks.

I know some people will probably question Paramore as a credible act, but based on this record, they ar far more than credible, they are extremely talented and deserve every success.