Paramore Conspiracy Theories

Criticisms of After Laughter

So I keep seeing the same criticisms of this album over and over again, and I do share some of them, but I wanted to ask you guys if you concur. 

1. "It's no Self-Titled"

I keep seeing literally this exact wording, I even saw exactly this statement in a professional review of the album.

As you all know Self-Titled is my favorite Paramore album. And believe me, I would love to do a full review to just gush about it (let me know if you wanna see that!) because it's that incredible. 

I get this one, and I share it, because for me S/T is THE Paramore album. It is the representation that Paramore can take whatever genre and make a hit with it, and do that with multiple genres on the same album. Who else could put a funk song, a pop song, a rock song, and a synth-pop song on the same album and have it all work together perfectly? No one but Paramore. It is the most out of the box, refreshing, upbeat, complex, incredible thing Paramore has ever done. 10/10.

After Laughter...7/10 still.

2. Repetitive 

Another criticism I hear, and kind of agree with, is at times the music on this record is painfully repetitive. The synth line in Told You So is really catchy, but then it gets annoying because it just repeats itself over and over. And a couple other songs do that too. So I understand this criticism.

3. It's Just....Meh

I don't feel this as much, but kind of understand it. A lot of this album is the same feeling at the same pace. I hate to mention S/T again, but what S/T did really well was portray multiple feelings, and if it did portray the same feeling it did it with different musical conviction each time (a la heartbreak in (One Of Those) Crazy Girls vs. heartbreak in Hate To See Your Heartbreak). 

4. It's Predictable 

This is one I also feel, and that is that at times the musical crescendo of some of the songs feel predictable, and the lyrics feel uninspired. I think easily there are parts of songs on this record that could have been written better and thus made the songs more interesting. Songs like Told You So, and Pool have this problem. 

These are some common criticisms I'm seeing, let me know if you guys share some of these or disagree with them. Cheers. - H