As the lead singer of Paramore for the past 15 years, Hayley Williams has been through some shit. There’s been good: world tours, multiplatinum record sales (a first for a rock band from Middle Tennessee) and a Grammy. There’s also been bad: bandmates leaving under acrimonious circumstances, with one departure ending with a legal battle. And then there’s been the ugly: leaked personal photos, and randos on social media stalking Williams via sockpuppet accounts intended to look like close personal friends and family.
None of those things seems to have had as big an impact on Williams as her 2017 split from then-husband Chad Gilbert, frontman of pop-punk peers New Found Glory. Their 10-year relationship began when Williams was 18, and only after their separation did she begin to talk openly about the overwhelming depression and anxiety that she struggled with throughout her 20s. Those discussions played a key role in Paramore’s most recent album, 2017’s dance-pop-infused After Laughter, as well as the extensive tour that followed. On Williams’ first solo effort Petals for Armor — a 15-song album being released as three EPs, with the final installment dropping Friday — they take center stage.
Petals for Armor opens with “Simmer,” an eerie electro-pop track that winks in the direction of Björk’s “Human Behaviour.” Williams’ song begins with a look at a person’s relationship with anger: “Rage is a quiet thing / You think that you tamed it / But it’s just lying in wait.” Within two minutes, she’s examining what can be done with anger: “If my child needed protection / From a fucker like that man / I’d sooner gut him / ’Cause nothing cuts like a mother.”
“ ‘Simmer’ was one of the first songs to be completed and demoed,” Williams tells the Scene via email. “In order to get to some of the other subject matter on the album, I had to first look at my own anger and examine where and why it was. Rage, and more specifically ‘feminine rage,’ has prompted many a good change in just about every arena. In my own life, it has saved me.”
The power of that rage is what propels Williams forward through the very difficult and personal process of sorting through the past decade of her life — almost like the first step of an emotional exorcism. Williams addresses grief in the graceful and bittersweet “Leave It Alone.” In “Dead Horse,” a tune inspired by African pop musicians like the Lijadu Sisters, she confronts regret, admitting to having an affair with Gilbert when the two first met. (He was married at the time.)
The process of coming clean is messy and ugly. But it’s not all bad. Hell, it can even be fun. “Cinnamon” is an experimental Kate Bush-flavored song that bends and shifts erratically, like someone dancing for the first time and discovering all the different ways in which their body can move. In the refrain, Williams insists, “I’m not lonely, baby I am free!”
She also summons her best Madonna and Janet Jackson-circa-1990 vibes on songs like “Over Yet,” a celebratory dance anthem about persevering through adversity. In the bright and bursting chorus, Williams is enthusiastic in her confidence: “It’s the right time to come alive, baby, if you wanna try to get out of your head.”
“This is a huge compliment,” she says when asked if these nods to other musicians are intentional. “Literally every one of those artists were called out or referenced at any given point throughout the demoing process. Björk is one of my all-time favorite artists, and Janet Jackson is a hugely underrated writer and producer. She is such a badass performer that I think her musical skills actually get overlooked.”
Dedicated Paramore fans will recognize some of the names in Petals’ credits — both Taylor York and Joey Howard helped write several of the album’s songs. But Williams brought in some new blood too, collaborating with several other women. They include writer and producer Steph Marziano and creative director and photographer Lindsey Byrnes. And yes, that’s Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus (aka super-group boygenius) you hear harmonizing on the ethereal “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris.”
The process to get to these songs may have been uncomfortable, but the result feels instinctive and organic. It’s like we’re seeing Williams in her natural state, maybe for the first time ever.
“I have found myself more open than ever to receiving support from fellow female artists and my female friends,” Williams says. “While I was in my marriage, I was a very closed-off person because I had quite a few trust issues, which included women. When you’re ripped open wide and you’re starting from scratch, you’re a little more willing (or maybe just desperate) to find connection and be transparent about your vulnerabilities. I met some of my closest female friends over the last few years since deciding to take my life back into my own hands.”
