1. Fast In My Car: Alright opening track, just seems to mellow.. might be a grower though. The beat sounds similar to a track off of Pink’s “Truth About Love” Album.(3.5/5)
2. Now: Already Love this track, and has already hit my top 25 most played over the year. (4.3/5)
3. Grow Up: Love this track, the hook is catchy and the instrumentals are radio-friendly. (4.4/5)
4. Daydreaming: Another cool blend of mellow verses and catchy hooks, the instrumentals on this one are reminiscent of some of their old stuff. The structure is pure classic Paramore too! (4/5)
5. Interlude: Moving On: Has a very Jason Mraz feel to it, on those long drives along the beach. It’s sort of repetitive though and lacks any oomph or kick. It feels quite random between the rest of the tracks though. (2.9/5)
6. Ain’t It Fun: Very No Doubt here with Paramore’s touch. The chorus is so catchy, you’d think you caught a bug! Dare I say a bit of MJ once the song reaches its hook! With those classic crowd breakdowns (yes those ba da ba da da’s in Brick by Boring Brick). (4.8/5)
7. Part II: “Let The Flame’s Begin”’s follow up, and yes it’s a great follow up but not quite on par with it’s original. And who doesn’t love Hayley hitting those high notes? Probably the major reason it saves the song from being a mess. The breakdown also makes you miss the Farro brothers, due to its heavy focus on the drums. (3/5)
8. Last Hope: ‘Turn It Off’ anyone? I like when Hayley strips it back for a little downtime mixed with heavy beats and focuses on emotion heavy lyrics. The letdown is the lack of instrumental variety. The chorus is average, but good enough in still being catchy. (3.2/5)
9. Still Into You: Loved this from the minute I heard it, its pure pop perfection and has hit written all over it. The chorus is catchy as hell, the verses are memorable with Hayley’s cooed and bland of hitting the high and low notes at the same time. Plus the breakdown will have the crowd going off at their next concert! Okay enough of my praising, you get the jist. (5/5)
10. Anklebiters: Spread the holiday cheer, the instrumentals at the beginning have that kidish Christmas sound and fittingly fits the song. Well now on to the song itself, it’s kind of average and is quite short? It certainly grows on you though. (3/5)
11. Interlude:Holiday: Another interlude, with the Jason Mraz feel again.. but screams filler, the interludes should have been removed as there just transitions into the next set of songs. This one though is less interesting as we’ve already gotten over the first interlude.(1.9/5)
12. Proof: Okay the album show’s signs of life again here after 2 not-so great tracks, the song has classic Paramore once more with the usual instrumentals and fun lyrics. Bit short though, could have been a bit longer with the removal of the interludes. (3.4/5)
13. Hate to See Your Heart Break: Hayley delivers us more great laid back tunes, drawing upon a ‘Only Exception’ vibe. It’s good to have these stripped back tunes from her, as it moves away from the heavy instrumental use. The breakdown is really cool too. Think of it as a bit of a break. (3.5/5)
14. (One Of Those) Crazy Girls: Anyone up for a little Salsa? Those beats have a salsa and Christmasty feel to it at the start before the beat kicks in. But the song is bland, no hook to it with little memorable lyrics(despite the line “now i’m one of those crazy girls”. (2.8/5)
15. Interlude: I’m Not Angry Anymore: Not another one of these, this one is not too bad though compared to the last one. (2.8/5)
16. Be Alone: This track returns too the early momentum of the album, with a great hook and a nice lyrical build up. After the previous two clunky tunes, this is a good setup into closing out the album. (4/5)
17. Future: A perfect way to close out the album, with a longer extended track that gives fans a “Misguided Ghosts” vibe. Hayley’s voice also really shines in this track with the acoustic instrumentals. Fans of their instrumental driven side won’t want to skip this one either as the track takes an epic turn at the half-way mark with a long-solo instrumental break-down. But the song loses its momentum when Hayley doesn’t return for a final send-off during the heavy instrumental end.(4.2/5)
Overall:Paramore has definitely changed their sound direction after losing the Farrow brothers, and this album proves that there a bit confused on just what direction that is. It’s a mixed bag with some great and other not so great tracks. The album itself, needs a good trim due to the 3-track interludes (one would have been sufficient) to allow more room for shorter tracks such as “Proof” to get a longer play.
Paramore is back though! And despite the album displaying an uneven sound direction, there is just enough tracks to show that they still have it in them to crack the radio airwaves.
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