If there’s one thing that Taylor Swift taught us in 2020, it was that long album cycles for records aren’t necessary every time you wanna drop something. That’s something that Swift contemporary and friend Hayley Williams, a lord of our scene in particular, took to heart. After unveiling her debut solo album, Petals for Armor, last year, the Paramore frontwoman has followed it up today with the surprise release of FLOWERS FOR VASES / descansos.
Chronologically, this can technically be shelved in your Williams’ collection before Petals for Armor, with the artist pointing that if “anything, it’s a prequel, or some sort of detour between parts 1 and 2 of Petals.” If you missed out on that album, you should probably get on it, especially given the testament of quality that is the fact that Sir Elton John is a fan. Speaking to Williams last year, he gushed that he had been a huge fan of hers and Paramore’s for some time, and that it had been on his “bucket list” to finally meet her.
“I had written a long and poetic press release”, she continued in her statement on the new drop, adding after 16 years of experience with rolling out albums that “writing more words in an attempt to describe better words I’ve written for the album at hand just seemed so boring and silly.” In the end, she left us with the fact that she wrote and performed the album in its entirety, a career first for her, and that it was recorded at her home in Nashville, which she moved into after Paramore’s release of their last full-length, After Laughter. Williams continued: “2020 was really hard but I’m alive and so my job is to keep living and help others to do the same.”
With re-assuring promises that Paramore remain together, you can check out Williams’ new solo effort below.
