Breathe in. Breathe out. This is how the music video for Hayley Williams’s new single, “Simmer”, begins. It’s also what I was mentally telling myself when I learned that Hayley Williams was putting out her first solo single.
Paramore’s lead singer has been a powerhouse since 2005, when the band released All We Know is Falling. Since that game-changer 15 years ago, their sound has changed drastically, from the grit of their second album Riot! to the fun and funky songs on After Laughter. Whether you prefer the old five-piece Paramore (sorry, Farro bros) or only jumped on the bandwagon after “Still Into You” was released, one thing is clear: “Simmer” is something totally different.
In October, an Instagram account called @petalsforarmor began posting cryptic close-ups of flowers. It turned out to be Williams, who created the account to promote her new album under the same name. In December, she posted an image of a note thanking everyone for wishing her a happy birthday and ended it with a strikethrough sentence hinting at new music in 2020, stating “you’ll get a taste of it in January.”
Well, that taste was “Simmer”, and I’m already hungry for more.
“The music video and the following video for “Simmer: Interlude” hints at the upcoming Petals for Armor being a concept album. “
The song itself is gritty in a way so raw that even Paramore’s earliest work can’t touch it. It’s suspected to be about her separation from New Found Glory’s frontman Chad Gilbert after being together for over a decade and married only sixteen months. Two lines in the middle of the track state “If I had seen my reflection / as something more precious, he would have never / If my child needed protection from a f***er like than man / I’d sooner gut him, because nothing cuts like a mother.” Not only do the words come from a place of anger and regret, the music goes so low to the point that it’s almost just Williams speaking. The way her voice shakes when she talks adds a sense of vulnerability reminiscent of the beginning of “Fake Happy” but in an even more powerful way.
The music video and the following video for “Simmer: Interlude” hints at the upcoming Petals for Armor being a concept album. Williams runs naked through the dark forest, being chased by a red glowing entity. She finds a house, and the entity follows her. At the end of the video, Hayley hits the figure over the head with a ceramic bowl, killing it, only to have its true identity revealed as also being Williams. In the interlude, she drags her other self into a room of the house where the two lie on the floor, gradually becoming cocooned in cobwebs and dust. The end of the interlude shows Williams’s eye opening to reveal that she’s covered in flowers- Petals for Armor.
In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine, Williams explained the lyric “wrap yourself in petals for armor” was her “feeling like the way for me to protect myself best is to be vulnerable and be okay with having a lot of pain at certain times and also feeling a lot of joy at certain times.”
So far, the concept brings me back to watching the film Midsommar, both from the over-the-top visuals to the sheer terror and rage that the “Simmer” video evokes. If it does prove to be a concept album, it’ll be vulnerable and intense, giving new insight to Williams’s healing process after the rock bottom that she often sings about in After Laughter.
Petals for Armor is due May 8, and until then, all we can do is hold our breath.
