Paramore share new song ‘The News’
Paramore is officially back. Everyone’s favourite pop/punk/pop-punk band have already announced their plans to drop a new album, This Is Why, in February. The title track has been out for a little while now, but if you’ve been patiently waiting for the latest track to drop, the wait is finally over.
‘The News’ has a little bit of everything: horror movie inspirations, angular guitar riffs, frenetic drums, and some catchy hooks to boot. It’s got the same springy edge as ‘This Is Why’ but with a little more darkness hanging around the edges. Lyrically, Haley Williams dispenses some good advice: turn off the news. I don’t know who’s still watching cable news (or who is still paying for cable), but there’s nothing calming or reassuring to be found in that medium right now.
“‘The News’ is one of those songs that came together pretty quickly and felt exciting from the start,” Hayley Williams says in a statement. “It feels like a happy medium between classic Paramore angst and bringing in some influences we’ve always had but never exploited. Watching Zac [Farro] track drums for this one was one of my favourite memories from the studio. Lyrically, it probably explains itself. The 24-hour news cycle is just impossible to comprehend. And I feel a pang of guilt when I unplug to protect my headspace. The common reaction, or non-reaction, seems to be dissociation. Not one of us is innocent of that, and who could blame us?”
According to Williams’ recent interview with Apple Music, the song’s content is about as timely as Paramore has ever been. “Personally, I was like, ‘OK. We’re not typically a political band,’ and it’s not a solely political song or a solely political album. I understand that where we live, where we’re positioned is not always reality. And we got four years at home to be members of our own community, be face to face with our families again, and kind of plug into our local community, be citizens, vote in person, all those things, right?”
“But that was our first real experience of that as adults,” she adds. “So who wants to hear a bunch of people whine about how difficult it is to live in 2022 or 2020 when maybe our lives don’t reflect the harshest of realities? But I think the other flip side to that is really wanting to do good and wanting to reflect the times as artists and wanting to be with it enough that we can use our platform. How can you ignore it? How can you not say anything?”
“It started with just the pandemic. Well, for us, it started with the tornado in Nashville, but there was the tornado, and then there was the global pandemic,” Williams elaborates. “There was George Floyd, there were all these uprisings, there were marches and protests that we went to. There was a bombing by a conspiracy theorist on Christmas Day in Nashville.”
“It’s like we’re experiencing it from whatever vantage point we’re at, and there’s something to say about it,” Williams concludes. “And I’m hoping, I’m praying and hoping that the perspective and the lyrics that we’re presenting is personal enough and as much with respect to everyone’s specific or potential vantage point that maybe other people can relate to it in some way that we haven’t even intended. And that’s the hopeful part of it.”
Check out the video for ‘The News’ down below. This Is Why is set for a February 10th release.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.