{"id":5644,"date":"2020-01-29T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=5644"},"modified":"2020-01-28T22:30:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T22:30:52","slug":"simmer-the-first-taste-of-hayley-willamss-solo-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2020\/01\/29\/simmer-the-first-taste-of-hayley-willamss-solo-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"“Simmer”- The First Taste of Hayley Willams’s Solo Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Breathe\nin. Breathe out. This is how the music video for Hayley Williams\u2019s new single,\n\u201cSimmer\u201d, begins. It\u2019s also what I was mentally telling myself when I learned\nthat Hayley Williams was putting out her first solo single.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paramore<\/a>\u2019s lead singer has been a powerhouse since 2005, when the band released All We Know is Falling<\/em>. Since that game-changer 15 years ago, their sound has changed drastically, from the grit of their second album Riot!<\/em> to the fun and funky songs on After Laughter<\/em>. Whether you prefer the old five-piece Paramore (sorry, Farro bros) or only jumped on the bandwagon after \u201cStill Into You\u201d was released, one thing is clear: \u201cSimmer\u201d is something totally different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, an Instagram account called @petalsforarmor<\/a> 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 \u201cyou\u2019ll get a taste of it in January.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that taste was \u201cSimmer\u201d, and I\u2019m already hungry for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The music video and the following video for \u201cSimmer: Interlude\u201d hints at the upcoming <\/strong><\/em>Petals for Armor<\/strong> being a concept album. <\/strong><\/em>“<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The song itself is gritty in a way so raw that even Paramore\u2019s earliest work can\u2019t touch it. It\u2019s suspected to be about her separation from New Found Glory\u2019s frontman Chad Gilbert after being together for over a decade and married only sixteen months. Two lines in the middle of the track state \u201cIf 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\u2019d sooner gut him, because nothing cuts like a mother.\u201d Not only do the words come from a place of anger and regret, the music goes so low to the point that it\u2019s almost just Williams speaking. The way her voice shakes when she talks adds a sense of vulnerability reminiscent of the beginning of \u201cFake Happy\u201d but in an even more powerful way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music video and the following video for \u201cSimmer: Interlude\u201d hints at the upcoming Petals for Armor<\/em> 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\u2019s eye opening to reveal that she\u2019s covered in flowers- Petals for Armor<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Kerrang! Magazine<\/a>, Williams explained the lyric \u201cwrap yourself in petals for armor\u201d was her \u201cfeeling 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nfar, the concept brings me back to watching the film Midsommar<\/em>, both from the over-the-top visuals to the sheer terror\nand rage that the \u201cSimmer\u201d video evokes. If it does prove to be a concept\nalbum, it\u2019ll be vulnerable and intense, giving new insight to Williams\u2019s\nhealing process after the rock bottom that she often sings about in After Laughter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petals for Armor <\/em>is due May 8, and until then, all we\ncan do is hold our breath. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breathe in. Breathe out. This is how the music video for Hayley Williams\u2019s new single, \u201cSimmer\u201d, begins. It\u2019s also what I was mentally telling myself when I learned that Hayley Williams was putting out her first solo single. Paramore\u2019s lead singer has been a powerhouse since 2005, when the band released All We Know is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":5645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,530,32],"tags":[873,868,870,872,576,104,129,871,792,869],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5644"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5652,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644\/revisions\/5652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}