Brand New Eyes: A Music Review

Brand New Eyes is Paramore's latest album:

Track Listing:

Careful
Ignorance
Playing God
Brick by Boring Brick
Turn it Off
The Only Exception
Feeling Sorry
Looking Up
Where the Lines Overlap
Misguided Ghosts
All I Wanted

You can listen to the entire album at the bottom of this post, while you read :)

This album was overall very impressive. It had Paramore's signature upbeat spunky rock feel, but contained a surprising number of slower songs and lyrical maturity. The overall lyrical suggestion is that you have to get a grip with reality and cease living in lies. That superficiality isn't a way to truly live, that you need to know who you really are as a person and accept and embrace your flaws. That no one is perfect, and you shouldn't let people who think they are put you down.

In Careful Hayley Williams (the frontwoman of the band) resists fake smiles and urges listeners to "Open your eyes like I opened mine, It's only the real world, A life you will never know".
In Ignorance, one of the singles from the album, she states "If I'm a bad person, you don't like me, well I guess I'll make my own way… Where's your gavel? Your jury? What's my offense this time? You're not a judge but if you're gonna judge me, Well sentence me to another life".
In Playing God Hayley tells someone "If Gods the game that you're playing, Well we must get more acquainted, Because it has to be so lonely to be the only one who's holy… Next time you point a finger I might have to bend it back, And break it, break it off, Next time you point a finger I'll point you to the mirror".
The next track, Brick by Boring brick, tells the story of a girl who created another world to live in because the real one was too painful. This song speaks volumes to me, because I know my own escapist ways and can relate to the girl Hayley is trying to help "Well you built up a world of magic, Because your real life is tragic, Yeah you built up a world of magic, If it's not real, You can't hold it in your hand, You can't feel it with your heart, And I won't believe it, But if it's true, You can see it with your eyes, Oh even in the dark, And that's where I want to be". The song itself feels a little like a fairytale, and the somewhat eerie video follows that theme.
Turn it off is about the goal of perfection and humanities prideful ways, how we seek to have it all but will never be happy with our own endeavors "It's getting harder to believe in anything, You just get lost in all my selfish thoughts, I wanna know what it'd be like, To find perfection in my pride… The tragedy it seems unending, I'm watching everyone I looked up to break and bending, We're taking short cuts and false solutions, Just to come out the hero".
The Only Exception (video here) is one of my favorite love songs, because it tells a story that isn't perfect, one that I understand. She's hurt and scarred and pushes away anyone who gets too close, until she meets that one person, the Only Exception to her rule: "And up until now, I had sworn to myself that I'm content, With loneliness, Because none of it was ever worth the risk, but you are the only exception".
Feeling Sorry is an unapologetic song that reprimands someone for wasting their life, "I feel no sympathy, You lived inside a cave!... I've got no time for feeling sorry! I tried not to think of what might happen, When your reality, it finally cuts through. Well, as for me, I got out and I'm on the road. The worst part it that this (this! ), this could be you". I'd write it off as harsh, if it wasn't for the following line: "Won't you promise me tonight, If it's the last thing you do, you'll get out…". It isn't entirely heartless :)
Looking Up is inspired by the band's struggles, "God knows the world doesn't need another band -But what a waste it would've been-I can't believe we almost hung it up-We're just getting started-" and Where the Lines Overlap continues with their story: "No one is as lucky as us, We're not at the end but, but we already won… I'm not used to it, But I can learn, There's nothing to it, I've never been happier"
Misguided Ghosts, an acoustic track and one of my favorites, slows things down significantly. I don't think any description of mine could do it justice, so please listen to it on the playlist at the end of the post-you'll be glad you did.
All I Wanted follows the somewhat overused formula of start-soft-get-louder, and isn't my favorite song, but is still a solid Paramore track and shows off Hayley's incredible voice.

I give this album 4 out of 5 stars, and my favorite tracks are Ignorance, Brick by Boring Brick, The Only Exception, and Misguided Ghosts. You can listen to the album in entirety below:

What are your favorite/least favorite songs on the album? And what do you think of that album cover? I really appreciate the imagery, it looks beautiful and alive at first, until you notice the pins... very thoughtfully done.

Thank you for reading,


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