Paramore Announce New Album ‘This Is Why,’ Unveil Title Track
It’s been five years since Paramore released music together as a group, but that all changes now.
The trio, consisting of Hayley Williams, Zac Farro and Taylor York, returned from their hiatus on Wednesday (Sept. 28) to unveil a new song, “This is Why” along with a Brendan Yates-directed music video. “This is why I don’t leave the house / You say the coast is clear / But you won’t catch me out / Oh, why? / This is why,” Williams sings in the upbeat chorus.
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The new single serves as the title track to the band’s upcoming sixth studio album, This Is Why, set for release on February 10, 2023, via Atlantic Records.
“’This Is Why’ was the very last song we wrote for the album. To be honest, I was so tired of writing lyrics but Taylor convinced Zac and I both that we should work on this last idea,” Williams said of the song in a press release. “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 f—ing 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.”
The last time Paramore released an album as a band was 2017’s After Laughter, which features songs like “Hard Times” and “Rose-Colored Boy.” Since then, Williams dropped her own solo album, Petals for Armor, in 2020 and Farro has unveiled a number of solo works under the moniker Halfnoise. On coming back together as a band, Williams recently shared with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, “I think it was just really important for us to have a minute away from the identity being tangled up with Paramore. And obviously, the internet has always been a thing that’s the Wild West, but even crazier as of the last few years. So really protecting your energy is, now more than ever.”
Farro added, “It’s a job at the end of the day, but it’s the best job you could ever have in the world. But you got to choose to get up and put your suit on and do it well. And so I think just everybody has their own way of processing what they need to arrive and do the best they can at this job. So whether it’s removing yourself for a little bit or not having any identity attached to it or whatever it is, it only makes for a better Paramore because you come back and you’re that much more… ‘I am so glad I got some away time, so now I’m ready to come back and smash this.'”
Listen to “This Is Why” below.
