Hayley Williams has spent the last 10+ years as the lead singer of the band Paramore. She’s no stranger to spilling her emotions in her work. On the band’s last album, 2017’s After Laughter, fans got a whole new side to the band both musically and lyrically. It truly felt as if the band was opening up more explicitly about mental health and battling one’s inner demons. And on Williams’ debut effort, Petals for Armor, the sentiments are similar. But don’t be fooled, this is not a Paramore record. This is a body of work that encapsulates the singer’s life from the past few years. The emotional layers have been peeled back and are open for the world to see, and there’s no beating around the bush about it.
Petals for Armor has been sprinkled about in the last few months, with an EP of five tracks that first arrived in February. It was then followed with Petals for Armor II in April and now the final part of the trilogy is released in the form of the full record. Conceptually, the record appears to be broken into three themes; feeling frustration and sadness, finding your self-worth in the chaos and healing your wounds and growing from the trauma.
The album kicks off with her song ‘Simmer,’ which was also the first track she released as a solo outfit. Williams has described the song as her personal experience of dealing with abuse and revenge. She’s also expressed how to channel that energy and learn from it. It’s a dark, moody track with a vocal curl that will rope listeners in.
The next track, ‘Leave It Alone,’ is a harrowing song of grief which, in a recent interview, she explained was developed from a time when her family was experiencing intense trauma. She sings ‘now that I want to live/everybody around me is dying'.’
But it’s not all doom and gloom. The record picks up with the motivational ‘Over Yet’ and even ‘Dead Horse,’ a song that describes her divorce from New Found Glory frontman Chad Gilbert, seems to have this sweet and sour, tongue in cheek to its lyrics, not to mention the chorus is an absolute earworm.
Williams explores a lot musically on this record too. There are elements of Madonna’s Vogue-era with ‘Sugar on the Rim,’ and some disco-funk on ‘Pure Love.’ As well as some airy-like R&B on ‘Why We Ever.’
The record closes with two significant tracks: ‘Watch Me Bloom’ and ‘Crystal Clear.’ The contrast of going from ‘rage is a quiet thing’ at the start of the record on ‘Simmer,’ to ending the record with ‘I wanna make it crystal clear that i won’t give in to fear,’ shows character development. It’s something that Williams has grown into or at the very least is working towards.
Petals for Armor manages to be raw and honest. There are no edits or filters, there’s no sugar coating. What you see is what you get, and what you get is all authentic. It’s a very human moment for Williams, bringing everything down to a personal level and showing the listener a very vulnerable side to her. It’s refreshing to see an artist use her talents in a way that can help the listener. While we don’t know for sure if we’ll see more solo material from Hayley Williams in the future, it is certain that Petals for Armor can stand alone as one of Williams’ best musical accomplishments to date.