Paramore Conspiracy Theories

Riot!: 8.5/10

Hey guys!

Riot! review though, and on the release day of Rose-Colored Boy no less. Yes, this is my review of Riot! my personal feelings about the album. I wanna stress one important thing:

Riot! was my least favorite album before After Laughter came out.

Feel like I need to mention that before AL, I had the most problems with Riot!. I'm gonna talk about those problems, but first things I like about it.

Thing I Like:

Lyrics:

Not on every song, but this album has some of my personl favorite Paramore lyrics in a few of the songs. Notable ones:

"It's not faith if you use your eyes"

"Once a whore, you're nothing more"

"What a shame we all became such fragile broken things"

And lots of others, Riot! has some pretty good lyrics to pick from. My favorite songs lyrically are When It Rains, Miz Biz, Fences, and Let The Flames Begin.

This album was written at a time when Hayley and Josh were close to breaking up and their relatiship was kind of fizzling, and it really is true that pain is the best inspiration, lots of these songs are beautiful. And when you listen to this album you get all sides of their frustration with each other. Songs like We Are Broken, the more sad look at how their relationship is ending and it devastates them. Then songs like For A Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic where you can clearly hear Hayley is singing to someone, the words are directed at someone she feels gave up on her and you get that message loud and clear. The flip side to For A Pessimist.. is When It Rains. In For A Pessimist... she's taunting the person for isolating themself and shutting her out, and in When It Rains she's kind of begging that person to stop dissociating and be more open with her. You get a full range of emotions lyrically, with this album. 

Demos:

I love, love, love the Riot! demos!

Among the Riot! demos are:

Hello, Hello

Stop This Song

Decoy

Honestly their classics at this point. In my opinion Riot! has the best demos (although we haven't heard the AL demos yet, if they exist 👀). 

My favorite demo is Decoy and it honestly makes the whole album for me (and it's not even on there!). The lyrics, the anger, the vocals, it's perfect. Vocals are a problem for me on this record, except on the demos. I don't know what it is, it's like she was so angry on the demos that she just didn't hold back at all, and it turned out incredible. 

There's been a bit of debate about Decoy over the years, as to who it's about, and a lot Tayley shippers use it use it as a song about Hayley using Taylor to get back at Josh; I don't believe that at all. I don't think Decoy is about anyone, I don't even think Decoy is from Hayley's point of view. Follow me here: I think Decoy is a second part to Miz Biz. I think Decoy is from the point of view of the girl in Miz Biz who uses people, how Hayley perceives her point of view at least. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, musically Miz Biz and Decoy have about the same level of intensity, and put together they make perfect sense, they tell both sides of the story. Imagine how amazing it would've been if Decoy had ended up on the album right after Miz Biz, it would've been a perfect cherry on top to finish off that story. 

Things I Dislike:

Vocals:

This will make a lot more sense when I do my review of AWKIF.

Riot!, for me personally, felt like a weird in between place for Hayley. 

Vocally BNE is one of her strongest albums, she has a good range, great control, really strong over all. Vocally AWKIF felt like a lot of shouting notes she couldn't hit, even though she could belt, it wasn't really good controlled belting with a lot of technique. Riot! feels like she was in between these two things, like it was the transitional album while she was learning better technique. 

She stopped shouting, and was trying to sing out, and hold notes longer, and she could only hold them a little longer than AWKIF but it was a start. But what she lost in this pursuit of technique, and she's never really gained it back, is that powerful one of a kind Hayley belt that she could do during AWKIF. She toned down the really throaty belting for Riot! and focused on technique, and Riot! is really the bridge between AWKIF and BNE in her vocal journey.

The consequence to that transition, for me at least, is that vocals on Riot! are some of her weakest in my opinion. Not quite powerful enough to stand up to AWKIF, but also not quite melodic enough to stand up to BNE. The vocals are just kinda so so, for me personally. 

Another thing I dislike vocally are the harmonies. To me, the harmonies on Riot! sound very artificial and processed, they don't really have the heart and sincerity of the harmonies on AWKIF. The AWKIF harmonies genuinely sound like two people harmonizing, whereas on Riot! it sounds like it was put together in post in the studio. It just sounds fake and processed to me. 

Music:

Musically, to me, Riot! is the dullest Paramore album, and that includes AL. I find the musical variety on AL more entertaining that Riot!, and that's saying something for me. 

Riot! is the album I can listen to all the way through and then look down and realized I didn't recognize any of the song changes except a couple songs. To me the Riot! standouts are:

We Are Broken

Fences 

When It Rains

Let The Flames Begin

But to me, personally, the other songs can get a little tediously repetitive. A driving guitar solo and 4/4 drum beat...again...great. It's one of the things I didn't like about Josh Farro's music for Paramore is it was all guitar and drum heavy, every song, and it created a variety issue. It's why S/T was such a  breath of fresh air because there were a lot of different instruments used and the compositions were a lot lighter in nature. 

Favorite Track(s):

Fences:

It's the most different song on the album, one the most different songs Paramore have ever done. It's a weird mix of punk and country, and I love it.

Miracle:

Miracle has some of my favorite lyrics on the record, at one point I wanted to get "it's not faith if you use your eyes" tattooed on me...really.

When It Rains:

When It Rains is my favorite musical composition on the whole record, it's so light and beautiful, it shows really that sometimes less is more. *cough* Joshua Neil Farro *cough*

Let The Flames Begin:

Do I have to say anything? This is a classic, completely iconic. The battle cry of the Parawhores!

Least Favorite Track(s):

CrushCrushCrush:

I find it boring, and not very creative lyrically. I like it and I'll sing along, but for me this song is just kinda meh.

Misery Business (Miz Biz):

I love Miz Biz, I do, but I've heard it a thousand times now, so the magic is kinda gone. And now a rant about Miz Biz that no one asked for; I want them to stop playing Miz Biz live. In my opinion, they've played it to death, and currently Hayley is having to change the lyrics to avoid backlash. I think it'd be better if they put Miz Biz to bed, like they did with Pressure, and picked a new song to sing live with people. Sing Rose-Colored Boy, or Told You So, or Anklebiters, or Conspiracy, just sing anything else I beg! 

That's my review of Riot!, remember these are my opinions in this post, just what I think personally. It's a pretty good album and I give it an 8.5/10. Happy release date to RCB, hope it does well. I'll see you guys Friday with my top 5 AL songs. -H