“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party" is the Hayley Williams album listeners have been waiting for — whether they realize it or not.
Twenty years ago, the teenage emo band Paramore wrote and recorded their first song, “Conspiracy,” recalling the plucky post-hardcore riffs of New Jersey's Thursday, fronted by a full-bodied vocalist in Williams. Her voice became their signature — huge and growing huger, religious belting atop chugging power chords. They signed a deal with the major label Atlantic Records;
one they would remain in for nearly two decades. In that time, Paramore become one of the most influential rock bands of the last few decades, moving from Warped Tour-indebted sounds to something more malleable. There were gospel choirs on 2013's “Ain't It Fun,” new wave-y dance pop on 2017's “After Laughter,” jagged post-punk on 2023's “This Is Why.” Zig? They zagged.
Then, another detour. During the pandemic, Williams released two solo albums, 2020s “Petals For Armor” and 2021’s “Flowers for Vases." Instead of her larger-than-life vocal athletics, Williams' interiority was on full display in reserved, meditative indie rock. Radiohead was a reference point. Consider those albums the foundation for her third project, “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” her most unshackled solo release to date, self-released by her brilliantly titled Post Atlantic Records.
Independence has been a priority from the jump: “Ego,” as it was dubbed by the music press, was initially dropped as a collection of 17 not-yet-sequenced singles, Williams' taking an unusual swing in subverting how new music was released. Fans began organizing the tracks into their own playlists, placing them in their own orders, which undoubtedly influenced Williams' own. The only difference on the official release of “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party”: It features a previously unreleased track, the gut-wrenching “Parachute" that references her first marriage.
In the final track list, the most biting moment arrives right at the top: on the trip-hop-pop “Ice in My OJ," where Williams declares “I got ice in my OJ, I’m a cold heart (expletive)/A lot of dumb (expletive) that I made rich.” (If there was a “Conspiracy” against her band all those years ago, it has been replaced with perspicacious clarity. Or, at least, the ability to articulate it directly and publicly. The song ends with a repetitive scream, “I'm in a band! I'm in a band!”)
Various '90s alternative genres are a clear reference point: “Brotherly Hate” feels informed by Fiona Apple; “Mirtazapine" is a thrilling college rock-channeling ode to an antidepressant, with a coda of Williams' distorted screams soaring over discordant guitars.
Mental health is a central theme, too, appearing on the soft “Negative Self Talk," or the pop-rock of “Kill Me,” a cutting examination of inherited trauma. “Carrying my mother’s mother’s torment,” she sings. “I think I’m where the bloodline ends.”
“Discovery Channel” interpolates The Bloodhound Gang’s 1999 hit “The Bad Touch" in an unexpected, sensual twist. It is one of a few songs that seem to reference heartache, also found on the marimba-like production of “Love Me Different." That one recalls an alternative universe “After Laughter” cut, a sound favored by Paramore's Taylor York.
From the beginning of her music-making, Williams has been celebrated for her elastic voice — a welcomed dynamism juxtaposed on the restricted nasal-singing from her older, male counterparts in the emo scene. On “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party," it is clear that elasticity is not only reserved for an otherworldly vocal range. It also refers to an emotional depth, and music that extends beyond pastiche and into personal revelation.
So, if this is an “Ego Death,” what comes next?
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