The opener and lead single, "Hard Times", sets a standard for lyrics that pretty much the entire album follows. Depressing lyrics, such as "Hard times, gonna make you wonder why you even try", set over a happy and carefree instrumental. At times, these fun little instrumentals seem even satirical, and though the genres exist, this theme is the basis for the whole album. This song in particular definitely throws back to the 80s with the instrumental, with a cute little piano riff and distinct guitars. I'm not the biggest fan of this song, and one of the biggest issues in this song is Hayley Williams' delivery: "And I gotta get to rock bottom" just sounds obnoxious and annoys me just to listen to it, though she sounds fine at other times, especially the bridge.
"Rose Colored Boy", a synthpop track, basically has the same song structure as "Hard Times", but does it so much better. The backup vocals are made up of these fun little shout-chants of "Low key, no pressure/ just hang with me and my weather" that really sets the mood. The verses are so dynamic and interesting, so much that the chorus seems like it'll be hardly distinct from them, but thanks to the similarly strong pre-chorus, they're offset enough that the chorus is nice and refreshing. The bridge reminds me so much of a HAIM song, but, you know, actually good. This song just sounds like the definition of fresh and engaging; definitely my favorite off of the album.
Finally, the three song greatness streak closes off with "Told You So". Though the chorus isn't too pleasing on the ears, this song is very pleasant, especially because of the bright and dreamy production and how powerful Williams' voice is on the verses. The bridge is a nice change of pace, with this quiet chanting leading to a last great instrumental hook.
By now, these three songs start to feel a little bit samey. They're all quite good, but they sound pretty similar production wise, with this 80s meets vaporwave aesthetic. The lyrics are also really similar; like I said earlier, they're all about dark or sad topics on a happy beat. "Forgiveness" follows both of these trends, ending up sounding so extremely forgettable. The production a bit more subdued, but it could probably fit on any of the past three songs. it sounds so much like a HAIM song, which is not a good thing.
"Fake Happy" pulls out a fakeout; it sounds super folky and acoustic at the start, which would be fine normally, but it just goes on too long. The production is probably the most faithful to Paramore's old work after that point, but by then, what's the point? It's just not good to listen to the awkward opening every time you want to replay it. The pre-chorus is really nice melodically, but the lyrics are some of the most cringy teen-angst that I've heard in a bit : "If I smile, with my teeth / bet you'll believe me." The rest of the song just evokes that new Harley Quinn aesthetic that some people love these days.
"26" finally pulls itself out of the depressive, almost formulaic trash, with a cute little ballad that finally evokes a new emotion on the album; hope. This song sounds like it'd be perfect to fall asleep to, and though I don't think that it should've been right after "Fake Happy", this is a great change in pace and shows that the ENTIRE album won't have the same formula.
"Pool" is a bit more vaporwave than the previous songs, with really airy chimes playing throughout the song and a subdued chorus. This song appears happy and doesn't deal with any of the vices that the last songs talk about, but after a second look, it seems to be about a toxic relationship. Again, this sounds like the better version of some random HAIM song.
"Grudges" is pretty boring and average; it's probably most eligible on the whole album to be titled as "filler". There's just noting at all to say about this song... it's just boring. "Caught in the Middle" is a lot angier than the other songs, and brings out that familiar teen angst from "Fake Happy". The lyrics aren't particularly interesting, except for the bridge : "I don't need no help, I can sabotage me by myself," but the chorus is pretty okay. Again, this song feels like it was made to be filler.
"Idle Worship" seems to be the most angry and obnoxious song on the whole album. She takes the annoying voices from previous songs and turns them up as much as possible, to the point that this almost sounds like, with different production, it could be on Riot!. This song certainly isn't fun at all for me to listen to, especially those drunk sounding "la, la la la la" parts. I can appreciate what she's trying to do on this song but it just doesn't work for me.
"No Friend" is just so bizarre and unexpected for me. It's basically just an instrumental track, with a man (Aaron Weiss, says google) inaudibly talk-singing in the background. Why is this on the album? It just seems so weird. It just doesn't fit on the album at all. Maybe if Hayley did it, it would work better... but it just doesn't.
"Tell Me How" feels a bit like it was just stapled on. Even though "No Friend" isn't good by any stretch, it feels like a closer. Regardless, this song is pretty nice to listen to, even though it should be in the middle of the album. It's a piano ballad with lots of raw vocals and some interesting drums at the end. It does drag on a bit, but Williams sounds very pleasant and at least she's not channeling more teen angst on this track.
Overall, I liked this album as a whole more than these individual song reviews show. The album DOES feel very samey - in particular, the production, for the most part, feels interchangeable- but at least the song that most of the songs sound like is very good (HAIM should take notes for their next album). The whole gimmick of "depressing lyrics set to a happy beat" gets old, but I can't blame it for that; it's just the whole album theme, even from the title. It succeeds quite well in being a throwback album, and though I probably won't revisit this album much, other than the first few songs, I'm satisfied with it.
Final Verdict: 62/100
Favorite Tracks: Rose Colored Boy, 26, Told You So
Least Favorite Tracks: No Friend, Idle Worship
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