The album is great on first listen. Songs that stood out to me at first: Hard Times, Told You So, Fake Happy, 26, Caught in the Middle, Tell Me How. For some reason, I was feeling like I had already heard the chorus of Tell Me How somewhere. Also, how can you skip 26? Is so good!
"No Friend" lyrics: Another brick red room Another black-top town Another misspelled band burning their own houses down Another pinebox tomb to fill the cemetery dead Another star, a touch of orange over purgatory grey Another void to fill Just scattered fruitless seed Another song I wrote that's too long God knows no one needs More misguided ghosts, more transparent hands We'll drop a nickel in our basket and we'll do our riot dance Beneath another burning sky, behind our parented verses Scores of catatonic smile covered assholes in a ship Layered by the school, so you can definitely see Can you forget these things? Perfection from the paper thief Perfection you project on me Behind the window shades I'm semi-conscious, already sleepin' in the bed I made That most unrestful bed, that most original sin What they act when I let ambition win I'd hate to let you down Thrown in a web with all his lies Drown my dull reflection in a naive expectation arise Back in the casket park Back when I felt most free I drew a picture and nowhere God they knew me So before the wretched men resume Before their dreaded son appears My driver's waiting So let's make one thing crystal clear You see a fraudulent form I see a shirt design I'm no savior of yours and you're no friend of mine You're no friend of mine You're no friend of mine I'm no savior of yours, you're no friend of mine You see a fraudulent form I see a shirt design I'm no savior of yours, you're no friend of mine I see myself in the reflection of people's eyes Realizing what they see may not be even close to the image I see in myself And I think I might actually be more afraid I feel like they know the story I saw a bear floating in the river and thought it was a fur coat Twelve years ago, I stood on the shore Jumped in and grabbed the coat And the river is rushing toward a waterfall And my friend stood at the shore and shouted to let go of the coat And swim back to land I let go of the coat but the coat won't let go of me In any case please let me know if there's more I can give you If nothing comes of it, then just know we are grateful
I'm really loving this, I'm a total sucker for 80's music in general and this is scratching the right spots.
I actually re-listened to Brand New Eyes and Paramore yesterday in preparation for today's release. I never loved BNE to begin with, but I don't think it holds up well and I would actually argue that After Laughter varies way more in style and mood than BNE does. That said, I'm not really into 80's music and I have never cared much for the 80's revival we've been seeing so prominently in recent years. Only rarely do I enjoy music that has a heavy 80's influence (such as the most recent 1975 and Mew albums), but After Laughter might be an example of an album that goes too far for my personal sensibilities. I might be stuck at the same place that I've been at for 4 years: being a bigger fan of Paramore the album than of Paramore the band.
"No Friend" is awesome, because it's pretty much just a mewithoutYou song. Aaron is just doing his usual thing, with Paramore as his backing band. Kind of weird to hear on a Paramore album. I knew he wrote that song, but I figured his vocals would be more of a guest feature - not the whole damn thing, haha.
Yeah, there's definitely no perfect artist. My trajectory with Paramore has almost been the opposite of most people. I've been a fan since All We Know is Falling first came out. They lost me with Riot and I was unimpressed with Brand New Eyes. Then I was totally won over by s/t, which remains one of my favorite albums of this decade. The s/t is the album that does not have anything missing for me -- and I'll mention that the debut still has a soft spot in my heart.
I dig it, but I'm biased since I'm a huge mewithoutYou fan. :) It IS surprising to hear on this album, but hopefully it will inspire some people to check out their discography.
If you turn on the equalizer in iTunes and set it to the "Vocal Booster" option, you can hear Aaron pretty well.
Yeah, what I'm curious about is what Hayley added to the writing of the song. She has writing credits on the track, but nothing is audibly her: just a lot of Aaron, Taylor, and Zac. She's credited in the CD booklet as sharing some of the keyboard and percussion duties, so she's probably on the track -- I just don't remember hearing keys there. Eh. Doesn't matter too much.
My only issue with "No Friend" is where it's at in the tracklisting. It feels more like a mid-album interlude than a penultimate track.
no friend is a big fuck you to everyone who was like "wow this band went tooooo poppy for me" while band just sticks in their most experimental song yet mewithoutyou isn't for everyone
I'm finding that after however many listens I've had with this, I enjoy it most with headphones. There are just so many subtleties to pick up and layers to peel back with every listen. Really cool production/panning stuff going on too other than it obviously just sounding generally fantastic