issue 16// vol 46

Eh Rw AA CO

Hayley Williams begins long-awaited solo career

> ‘Simmer’ by Hayley Williams

Sonam Kaloti
Arts Editor

keen

He Williams has finally cooked up a
solo album titled Petals for Armor—
and the first single, “Simmer,” was released
on January 22. In an interview with BBC
Radio 1, Williams explained the album’s
meaning: “[Petals for Armor] is somewhat
of a mantra to try to stay soft ina really,
really hard world and feel pain and let all of
it come to you and try to put out something
that can redeem it all, even if it’s ugly at
first.”

The track begins with some breathing
and vocal samples with a bass heavy beat
and muted snares. Uniquely, samples of her
vocals and breathing serve to accompany
the beat. This dark and groovy beat is
reminiscent of Billie Eilish’s darker music; I
was pleasantly surprised that the song and
vocals did not go in that stylistic direction
at all. Not too loud or overpowering, the
slightly unnerving instrumental plays
behind Williams’ voice as she comes in on
the first verse.

“Rage is a quiet thing,” is the first line
in the song. This reminds me of Twenty
One Pilots’ iconic line, “Sometimes quiet is
violent,” from their hit single “Car Radio.”
Williams has created her own eerie, quiet
yet profound lyric that will forever hold

 

The perfect

weight. The raw and vulnerable lyrics are
somewhat new and are a blatant example
of what Williams has gone through in the
last few years, as well as how much she has
matured through the process.

The chorus is very upbeat and repeats
twice with a slight variation in rhythm to
spice up the song. Williams pushes to, as
she says, “give in” to the rage she feels and
in turn, “simmer down,’ once the emotions
have run their course.

“The way for me to protect myself
best is to be vulnerable and be okay
with having a lot of pain at certain times
and also feeling a lot of joy at certain
times,” Williams continued in the BBC
interview. The second verse holds the most
emotional and vulnerable content. While
the song thus far has reflected Williams’
introspection on her well-being, emotions,
and approach to situations (“how to draw
the line between wrath and mercy,’) the
second verse goes into the root of some of
her insecurities and the personal issues she
is currently facing.

“If I had seen my reflection as
something more precious, he would’ve
never,’ is likely a reference to her
relationship with ex-husband, New Found
Glory’s frontman Chad Gilbert. Paramore’s
After Laughter album details some aspects
to their relationship, as well as “Bad Mood”
by Gilbert—which highlights Gilbert’s
frustration with Williams’ insecurities and

soundtracks

> ‘Brand New’ albums ranked

James Wetmore
Contributor

 

ost of us have gone through some

form of an emo period in our lives,
getting rid of any brightly coloured clothes
and healthy outlook on life and replacing
them with all black clothes and a nihilistic
attitude. The early 2000s were a prime time
for this, as the absolute nuclear explosion
of emo and pop punk bands pretty much
forced you into being one anyway. Brand
New was formed in 2000, and it wouldn't
be long until they planted their boots deep
into the emo scene—releasing four well-
received albums before the decade's end
and an additional record in 2017 before the
band’s break up in 2018. But how do their
albums stack up ten years later, and which
is the best of the bunch?

The first album on the list is the
band’s debut record Your Favorite Weapon,
released October g, 2001. There’s nothing
bad about this record, but it's hard to find
anything that wasn’t already being done
by the plethora of other bands releasing
albums at this time. The primary lyrical
influences are high school breakups—not
offering much brain food besides the
occasional wittiness of frontman Jesse
Lacey. The redeeming quality of the album
is the clear floorplan of the Brand New
sound that would be further developed on
later records, which brings me to...

Their fourth album Daisy is the next
on the list. When this album dropped
September 22, 2009, it was almost
immediately divisive among the band’s

fans. It was a big departure from the sound
the band had been refining for nine years,
preferring to try and recreate how they
performed live. It’s a lot more experimental
and containing the most screaming in any
of their albums; it’s not hard to see why it
was either a love or hate album. The band
hasn't released any bad albums, but this
is—for sure—their most hit or miss effort.
Third on the list is the band’s
sophomore record Deja Entendu, released
June 17, 2003. This is where the band really
began to shine and show off their talent for
storytelling. The lyricism became much
more mature—no longer focused on high
school romance and breakups—and the
song writing expanded outwards from the
simple pop punk formula the band had
following their debut. This album further
continued to develop their sound that they
had set the foundation for on Your Favorite

Weapon.

The second and first positions, in my
mind, are easily interchangeable—mostly
because of the long gap between their
releases and the evolution the sound
had gone through in that time. If] had
to pick one, it would most likely be the
band’s third release: The Devil and God
Are Raging Inside Me, released November
21, 2006. This is where the band really
exploded sonically and lyrically, light years
from where they were only two albums
ago. The variety in the songs keeps the
album refreshing, and the wittiness and
introspection provided by the lyrics make it
an easy album to come back to years later.

Even then, the band’s latest, and

general unhappiness. Per
the lyric from “Simmer,”
it can be determined that
had Hayley been more
secure in herself and her
happiness, she believes
that Gilbert would still
have blamed her for his
actions and their eventual
demise.

“And if my child
needed protection, from
a fucker like that man,

I'd sooner gut him—
cause nothing cuts like

a mother,” is the second
half of the second verse.
Hayley both places herself
as a caring mother who,
if she was her own child,
would have been saved
from the pain Gilbert
caused her, while also
regretting that she did
not protect herself as she
should have earlier on.

“Simmer” was
unexpected in terms of
what it would be about.
Lastly, in the BBC interview, Williams
said: “Everything in the entire[...] planet
[...] should be making us angry right now,”
and the fuel from the passion she feels has
left us with this tragic but hopeful song.

  

Photo by Ralph_PH on Flickr

Overall, the single is amazing and fulfilled
my extremely high expectations (blew
them out of the park, really). The album
Petals for Armor releases on May 8.

for edgy, emo teens

maybe final album,
Science Fiction,
released August 17,
2017. An amazing
record, it offers the
same twists and
turns the band had
become well known
for, additionally
offering the
experimental edge
that was the focus of
the group’s previous
album. The eight year
gap since their last
release clearly hadn’t
gone to waste, as the
band matures further
than they ever had

in respect to lyricism
and composition,
emotionally draining
the listener as on

The Devil and God
but also offering the
heaviness employed
on Daisy. This album
has every right to bea
strong contender for
the first position, and
I don’t think any diehard fan would argue

with the decision.

Brand New was a band that tried
hard in the beginning to be unique,
but eventually found their footing in
their emotional capabilities and in
being musically interesting instead of
commercially viable. A genre-defining

 

band in every sense of the word, Brand
New continued to experiment and evolve
throughout it’s 18 years, with an emphasis
on storytelling and artistic statements
rather than trying to sell millions of
records. Every album listed here can be
an easy 9 / 10 (except for their debut... but
shhh).