Harry Styles & Paramore

Harry Styles (Self Titled) & Paramore (After Laughter)

-Quick Album Reviews-

After the singles “Hard Times” and “Told You So”, I was surprisingly optimistic about Paramore’s new album After Laughter; that’s about where the optimism ends. The singles had a poppy, 80’s synth vibe to them I assumed would carry on through the album, but I was a little disappointed when what followed was about par for the course from Paramore. Sad ballad here, fun uplifting song there, love song over here, and it all just felt instantly forgettable. The 80's vibe was around, but never felt to be fully actualized. One of the main issues I had was that in the moments in songs that should have felt the “punchiest”, or most catchy, the song felt a little flat, needing a layer of je ne sais quoi.

Although I enjoyed Told You So, even that song’s hook sounds like it should have had a little more to it. “Idle Worship” was a song I was enjoying up until Hayley Williams’s singing got even whinier as the song progressed and she sings ‘lalalalalala’ very annoyingly throughout it. “Fake Happy” sounds like a song written for 13yr old emo kids, written by a 15yr old emo kid who is coming of age. As the title suggests, it’s about how everyone just builds a facade/front in order to pretend they don't have issues, but guess what?! They DO have issues. Riveting. Personal highlights aside from the singles, I enjoyed “Rose Colored Boy” and “Tell Me How”, for reasons quite opposite from each other. Rose Colored Boy committed to the 80’s vibe more whole heartedly (probably why it’s sandwiched by the singles on the track list) and was just catchy. Tell Me How sits on the opposite side of the spectrum, and serves as a somber send off to the album. Though lyrically doesn’t offer anything crazy in terms of a “break up” song, it explores the sentiment of a never ending cycle of an on-and-off relationship, and the confusion and hurt it comes along. However, as a whole, the album isn’t memorable or personally merit repeated listens. Since the first initial listenings of it, I’ve only gone back to some of the first half of the album. At best, the album is worth giving a quick play-through to pick out the two or three songs you might fancy and ignore the rest.

4 / 10

The comparisons to Zayn Malik are unavoidable when it comes to Harry’s debut album, so let’s just get that shit out of the way. When Zayn broke off from One Direction, many people, including myself, were hopeful we’d get 2010’s version of 'Justified', with even the likes of Tyler, the Creator (who idolizes Pharrell) showing enthusiasm in working with him, though it never did pan out. What we got however, was another artist chasing the sound The Weeknd has come to popularize; un-enthused, sexual slow singing over spacey music. It was Zayn perhaps trying too hard to separate himself from the shadow of One Direction’s cleaner image. Whatever. Onto Harry’s debut, self titled album.

“Sign of the Times”, the first single off the album, still personally holds up after plenty listens. Though I’m hardly the expert on David Bowie, my initial gut feelings about it reminded me of something inspired by Bowie himself, or a song that at least serves as an ode to him. “Sweet Creature” kept the ball rolling and made me look forward to the album’s release, a personal, mostly acoustic song about finding one’s way back “home” despite the turmoil in a relationship. After repeated listens, I found myself really enjoying the album, but not without my reservations. Lyrically, there is a lot of moments that could have been fleshed out, with most of the hooks being repetitive, often cringe-y refrains. A song like “Only Angel” opens up promisingly, with a spacey, yet again Bowie-esque vibe, accompanied by a rising sort of backing choir, to then suddenly culminate into a total left turn. The song has an annoying cowbell that backs repetitive lyrics, with the hook simply being the title of the song repeated over and over with ‘wooing’ in between. This continues onto the next song, perhaps the worst song off the album, “Kiwi”. Kiwi is the prime example of repetitive lyrics and cringe worthy moments on the album, with the cheesy “I'm having your baby! It’s none of your business!” hook. The song just tries too hard to sound like Harry is having a good time or being edgy.

I am a bit of hypocrite however, because “Woman” has a chorus that, you guessed it, is just Harry repeating the title of the song with generic wailing in between, but is a song I’m digging and find super catchy. The song does open up with a cringe worthy line about Netflix though, 'tisk-tisk'. “Carolina” is a fun offering as well, but I ultimately preferred the slower tempo songs off the album such as “Meet Me in the Hallway”, “Two Ghosts”, “Ever Since New York”, and “From the Dining Table”. Though these songs aren’t exactly safe from the criticism I have of the album’s lyrics as a whole, under these circumstances they seem more fitting. They aren’t paced throughout the album in a way that has an explicit rhyme or reason, but it hardly needed to. Harry played it safe with his debut, and ideally, he will either have learned to flesh out his songwriting or bring along help that will for his next album.

7 / 10