Day 5: Hayley Williams – Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

Album cover courtesy of Post Atlantic

In many ways, it seems to be 2008 again. Kesha and Pitbull are at the top of their game, the economy is in shambles, and I seem to be reverting back to being the tubby little emo kid that I used to be back then. I had a lip piercing and a side fringe that went over my eye, I quoted Fall Out Boy lyrics on MySpace. I wore eyeliner and I was a part of what the other kids called the Gang of Emos. It was a bad time.           

At that age, I was obsessed with pretty much any act that was signed to Fueled by Ramen. Paramore, fronted by Hayley Williams, was one of them. Later, they moved to Atlantic Records for what seems to have been a predatory contract that they only recently got out of. Now, Williams is releasing solo work under her own label cheekily called Post Atlantic. She surprise-released this album to a website earlier this summer, and has now released it officially.

 Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is the second album Hayley Williams has released on her own, and it sounds just as good as her earlier records with Paramore did. It sounds fresh and modern, yet it tickles the exact same part of my brain that her music did when I was younger. It’s not very Paramore-y, but it still sounds distinctly like her – she manages to keep her signature sound, even when she’s leaning more towards pop than pop-punk.

Her lyrics reminds me that there really aren’t that many truly unique experiences in life. You could be emo pop punk royalty, but when you’re going through a break up, there you are on TikTok crying to Alex Reads Tarot like the rest of us plebs. The songs about the apparent collapse of her relationship are the high points of the record, with “Love Me Different” being an upbeat reframing of the break-up lines that crap guys always offer, and “Parachutes” being your traditional sad break up song to cry to.

It’s not a phase, mom! And it really wasn’t, seeing as I’m listening to Hayley Williams 17 years later. I take it less of a sign of me regressing and more as a sign that Hayley Williams is just consistently good. Ego Death gets a 7.5/10.