After 20 plus years spent fulfilling their contract for Atlantic Records – a contract Williams signed as a mere teenager Paramore announced in December of 2023 that they were finally an independent band. This surprise collection is self-released by Hayley Williams on her new venture Post Atlantic.
These songs come as the third batch of work released from Williams as a solo artist. The COVID-era saw her release two extraordinary albums – 2020’s “Petals For Armor” and 2021’s “Flowers for Vases“.
Both albums were gorgeous and stark meditations on loss and offered up a contrast to the high-energy and up-tempo muscle she displays in Paramore. “The record—epitomizing vulnerability and transformative growth—reveals a more mature and introspective side of Williams,” said Pitchfork of Petals, and went on to say of “Flowers” “her voice is undoubtedly the standout feature… husky and gentle, dangerous yet warm,” and explained that the minimal production “makes this a purposeful reset.”
Hayley Williams has had a generational run compiling her work as the frontwoman of Paramore and her two previous solo works “Petals for Armor” and “Flowers for Vases“. Emerging from a twenty-something-year contract with Atlantic Records and having not yet toured any solo work due to covid-19, a twenty-track follow-up album was likely the last thing fans anticipated.
Enter “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party”, standing as Williams’ magnum opus, her first independent release and the most authentic. An album of firsts, “Ego Death” relied on public radio and a unique fan-focused engagement plan, with Williams releasing the album initially as singles, before taking to fan-built playlists for the album’s final tracklist. From initial joke turned bold opener ‘Ice In My OJ’, which revisits one of her earliest projects, the Christian comic Mammoth City Messengers, to the weighty ‘True Believer’ which delves into gentrification, capitalism and the inequalities of Southern Christian culture, “Ego Death” is a powerful reminder of how much of a multifaceted light Williams is.
On ‘Kill Me’ she revisits the topic of generational trauma, a theme which protrudes through much of her solo work, as well as her rootedness and resistance to Nashville, Tennessee’s corporate greed “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party“. Combining the wider themes of socialism and politics, with closer to home themes of self-worth, love and fame, sprinkled across multiple genres and styles. This is a witnessing of renewal, Williams herself outside the constraints of expectation, and it feels like one that’ll be referenced years into the future.
The Fat Angel Sings 