Paramore’s After Laughter: It’s Been Two Years, but Who Can Stop Talking?

A confused Hayley Williams hops out of a broken down red car and begins wandering around a place filled with lightning clouds and dead trees — this is the opening scene in  Paramore’s Hard Times music video from their album After Laughter. (https://youtu.be/AEB6ibtdPZc)

Her music videos embody what the album is about and paints a clear visual of each songs’ meaning. Paramore’s After Laughter album is a collection of 20th century pop.

Their album covers intense topics such as heartbreak, hope, sadness and failure — but not in the traditional slow instrumental way. Paramore takes on these topics with an upbeat collection of songs that make you want to jump out of your seat and start dancing — not including a few alternate sounds the band included in the album.

Hard Times — the first song on the album — describes the struggles of life, and vividly depicts the emotions of failure through simple words. (‘Hard times, gonna take you down and laugh when you cry.’)

This song was a perfect choice to transition into the next two songs — Rose-Colored Boy and Told You So that also follow 80’s pop vibes.

In the video, Williams is shown in a mirror, preparing to go on air. She lets out a deep breath, and places a fake smile on her face — she enters.

Throughout the Rose-Colored Boy video she is shown falsely happy while on air, and between scenes as the opposite persona. The song dives into the reality of how people aren’t always happy, but are forced to put on a facade. (https://youtu.be/cW5ueE2vUm0)

Rose-Colored Boy is a symbol of a person who is constantly merry. In the song Williams sings, “Hey man, we all can’t be like you. I wish we were all rose-colored too.”

The next song on the album — Told You So — is about how people love to prove you wrong. The band compares this feeling to being thrown in and out of a fire. (‘Throw me into the fire. Throw me in, pull me out again.’ x9)

This relates to Paramore’s fifth song on the album — Fake Happy — which adds a twist to the vibes of the album. This song begins with a mellow intro and Williams singing about how she is “fake happy.” Only 40 seconds in and the band begins to match the cheerful beats from earlier. This song is a symbol of the entire concept behind the album, which conceals melancholy topics with catchy beats.

But the band takes a turn with 26 — the sixth song on the album. 26 is a slow, melodious song that talks about reaching for hope even in the toughest times. Even though this song is the slowest on the album, it talks about the most joyous subject. While all of the other songs discuss stress and hardship, this one is about how to diverge from these feelings — through hope.

This is not the only song that offers change to the light-hearted music style. The 11th song on the album — No Friend —is mostly an instrumental track, but if you listen a little more closely, you can hear band mate  Aaron Weiss singing in the background.The eccentric sound of Weiss’ voice has no place on the After Laughter album, and was an offbeat way to introduce such a new sound. Weiss has never sung on any previous albums and after listening to No Friend, he should not sing on any other ones.

The instrumental drowns out the voice of Weiss, and unless you are reading the lyrics while listening to the song, chances are you won’t even notice a singer is present.

Paramore revives the album with the last song on the album Tell Me How,  which is a dulcet ending, allowing the listener to indulge in a trance through Williams heavenly vocals.

Authors Note: Photo Courtesy or YouTube and Wikipedia