REVIEW
“Long live public radio” reads the CD case containing singles “Mirtazapine” and “Glum” by Hayely Williams, frontwoman of the band Paramore, which first debuted on Nashville Public Radio Station WNXP. In an uncommon album rollout, on July 28, 17 songs were released on hayleywilliams.net, a website that was blocked by a wall requesting a 16 digit code.
Fans gained access to this code as a part of a new drop from her hair dye brand “Good Dye Young” for a neon yellow dye called “Ego.” Based on the title of the hair color, fans began to assume the name of the album to be the same including the tracks “Kill Me,” True Believer,” “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” “Mirtazapine,” and “I Won’t Quit on You.”
By July 30, the songs had been wiped from the website and fans were left with only the message “Thank you for listening.” This was until Aug. 1 when all 17 tracks were singularly released onto streaming platforms each with their own unique cover art following the same yellow and black color scheme. This peculiar album roll out allowed fans to make their own playlists containing all of the singles in whichever order they felt most fitting.
Being William’s first solo work since the release of “FLOWERS for VASES / descansos” (2021), fans were ecstatic for the release of new music, and this anticipation was well worth the wait.
The first single “Mirtazapine” is a love letter to antidepressants: “Here come my genie in a screwcap bottle / To grant me temporary solace,” Williams sings and explains her gratitude towards this almost magical medicine.
While this particular song veers towards the playful and lighthearted side of topics, this feeling is sharply contrasted by the gut wrenching lyricism of “True Believer.” Williams displays gruesome imagery as she sings, “They pose in Christmas cards with guns as big as all their children / They say that Jesus is the way, but then they gave him a white face / So they don’t have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them.” An unmistakable dig at the current state of the world.
Within this song, Williams touches on the prevalence of racism in current times and relates it back to the past, showing how little change has been made as a society. “Strange fruit, hard bargain / Till the roots, Southern Gotham,” Williams sings in reference to “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, a hauntingly profound song that delves into the lynching of African Americans in the era of Jim Crow. Through this lyric, Williams highlights the fact that these issues of the past are still prevalent and occurring currently.
In “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” the title track of the album, Williams sings, “I’ll be the biggest star at this bachelorette party bar.” She paints the picture of her being invited to a bachelorette party back at her hometown and being unable to disconnect from her fame. As the song progresses, she becomes increasingly exasperated with her ups and downs in the world she has created for herself.
Williams also experiments with interpolation in this album, pulling lyrics from popular songs and even from her own past projects. “Ice in my OJ” pulls its lyrics of the chorus “I’m spinning circles and I can’t deny / Floating on your love like a butterfly / Got me jumping inside, thinking about you” from the song “Jumping Inside” by Mammoth City Messengers, a CD and comic book series which was Williams’ first singing gig at the age of 13.
Hayley Williams’ 3rd solo album was officially released on streaming platforms one month after she first released them onto her website, Aug. 28, under the title “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.” With this release, Williams had one last surprise left for her fans, a new song that officially concluded the album “Parachute.”
This song has quickly become my personal favorite and the perfect ending to an already spectacular album. As we are reeled in with the sharp clamoring of drums abruptly ending and leading into a soft piano, Williams tells the story of her love with fellow Paramore bandmate Taylor York. The drums return once again as we are led into the chorus: “I thought you were gonna catch me / I never stopped falling for you / Now I know better, never let me / Leave home without a parachute.” Williams conveys the sheer blindness felt as one falls so deeply into love, believing that the one she is meant to be with will come and save her.
Into the second verse, Williams’s singing shifts almost into yelling as she presents her voice with anger unlike any other project she has released before. “Tell me what was the moment, you decided to give up / You could’ve told me what you wanted / I would’ve done / Anything,” She screams out with resentment of how her lover hadn’t saved her from her prior marriage sooner, regretful of her wasted time with the one she was truly meant to be with.
“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” as a whole is unlike any other project I have listened to before with its vast subject matter and layers of lyricism. It has quickly earned the title of being a “no skip album” and is entirely worth a listen in full. The production level and fan support has greatly increased from what it was at the release of her past two albums and one could only hope for this support for Hayley Williams to continue growing from now into the release of her future projects.
