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“This Is Why,” Paramore (Atlantic Records)
Paramore is the pop-punk band of people’s lives. Nostalgia is wrapped around the band’s identity but they never allow it to overshadow the music. In fact, in their sixth studio album, “This Is Why,” they get angrier, pricklier and funkier, all the while merging the band’s past and future, levitating way beyond their icon status to something else entirely.
The Nashville-born and raised band were formed in 2004 when lead singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro were teens. They have been together for nearly two decades, and in their first album in five years, their comfortability and cohesion are fully on display in the almost perfectly composed 10-song record.
Their lead single, which doubles as the album’s title, “This Is Why,” is an encapsulation of Williams’ self-aware, political and intimate songwriting that is present throughout this album.
