Hayley Williams Petals For Armor 2LP

Rolling Stone's The 50 Best Albums of 2020 - Rated 31/50!
Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums Of 2020 - Rated 21/50!

Hayley Williams' hugely anticipated debut solo album Petals For Armor arrives via Atlantic Records on Friday, May 8th, 2020. Produced by Taylor York - Williams' lead collaborator in the GRAMMY® Award-winning Paramore - the album was heralded by the acclaimed first single, "Simmer". The smoldering track arrived alongside its own Warren Fu-directed video, providing a compelling first chapter to a continuing storyline.

Another track from the album, "Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris", features backing vocals from boygenius, the trio of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers.

You can her band Paramore's hungry-hearted neo-New Wave sparkle here, but she takes her sound to new places, from Bjorkian dreaminess to Eighties R&B and jagged art pop à la Tune-Yards, without leaving behind sharp hooks and big-chorus payoffs she gets so naturally. 'Got a lot inside of me,' she sings on the Janet Jackson-esque 'Watch Me While I Bloom,' one of many moments here where experimentation, freedom, and fun all blossom at once.

The great thing about being a vocalist is trying on new clothes. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. In the case of Petals for Armor, the silky alternative beats nurture Williams' vocals. There's a post-modern wash to her cadence that builds upon the new wave synth pop that fueled After Laughter. She's always been a vulnerable songwriter, but by her lonesome, Williams is stripped of any of the pretense that comes with being in a band for over 10 years. No, Petals… is an intrepid effort for an artist who continues to write new chapters for herself, and the beauty is the feeling that there's no end in sight.