The best songs on 2007’s Riot! were the ones that emphasized
the pop part of Paramore’s pop-punk equation. On this follow-up, the
Tennessee quintet loads up on melodies, shoving aside the blurry guitar
grind of a thousand whiny emo bands in favor of major hooks.
Twenty-year-old frontwoman Hayley Williams comes on like a redheaded
firecracker throughout Brand New Eyes, spitting lines about
broken hearts and shifty friends. “Next time you point a finger, I
might have to bend it back or break it off,” she sings on “Playing
God.” And on “Turn It Off” and “Where the Lines Overlap,” she leads the
rest of the band to some big, glorious choruses. There are a few
missteps: They turn up the volume a couple times for noisy and tuneless
workouts, and the acoustic ballad “Misguided Ghosts” is a real snoozer.
When Eyes meets somewhere in the middle, it sounds like
Paramore, as Williams sings on “Looking Up,” are just getting started.
— Gallucci
This article appears in Oct 14-20, 2009.
