Paramore - Riot

Tue 28th Aug, 2007 in Music Reviews

I must admit, I had no idea who Paramore were before I heard their cover of Foo Fighters’ My Hero on some random indie blog. From that minute, I was utterly enthralled (as, it seems, many others are) with Hayley Williams ’ voice. Williams is the star of Paramore, an indie band in the conventional sense who have garnered a huge fanbase in the States, having beaten out Panic! at the Disco (remember them?) for best new artist in rock bible Kerrang!

Now that I own both of their albums, I can safely say that anyone who voted for these guys made the right decision. It’s not that their music is startlingly original, indeed their are many other bands doing the whole girl-sings-in-front-of-heavy-rock-band shtick, but the fact that they do it so, dare I say, gorgeously, without the pretension you’re bound to see in outfits like Evanescence and later Killing Heidi. What Paramore have is a genuine feel about them which will sell gazillions of records. The music is emotional, but not emo, Hayley goes hell for leather on every note, but doesn’t over dramatise her vocal lines, and the band rocks, shuffles and swings with the professionalism that every group should exhibit before they get signed.

They won’t change your life, but Paramore are definitely a band worth checking out if you’re sick of all that snappy indie bullshit that’s going around like the plague.