Earlier this year, we were graced with a new Paramore album titled This Is Why. The album received mass amounts of love and an incredibly witty Rolling Stone review. Now, we’ve been blessed with not just one, but two Paramore albums to end the year with. Re: This Is Why was released on Oct. 6 and is essentially a remix of the songs on the previous album.
Songs like “This Is Why” use a blend of soft vocals and heavy punk-rock motifs to create a sense of buildup from the verses into the chorus. The first track on the new album, “This Is Why (Re: Foals),” however, is completely different. The music on the rereleased track is heavily electronic-based, almost giving it a vintage ‘80s feel. Although it’s a nice concept, the dissonant and atmospheric take isn’t strong enough to last the full five minutes. I do feel, however, that this is a great song to open the album with, both in the original and the remade versions.
“The News” was definitely my favorite on the album. I found myself preferring the remade version by Linda Lindas more than the original. For such a guitar-heavy song, I feel that the guitar and drums overpower the vocals, making the song sound hollow. The Linda Lindas remake uses a blend of mixing, electronic synthesizers, heavy reverb, and background vocals to make the track sound complete and give it exactly what it was missing.
While the first two tracks stayed somewhat true to the original album, the remainder of the album was very disjointed. When first hearing about the remix, I assumed that the 11 songs would all be variations of the originals with additional lines or production. For better or worse, these are complete remakes of the original tunes. Both “Running Out Of Time” remixes have strayed so far from the original track that they should be considered their own songs. The Zane Lowe remix particularly has a very electro-funk futuristic sound reminiscent of music you would hear while at an arcade or playing a video game. For a very lyric-heavy song, the remixes both take away the storytelling aspect of the track by removing or changing most of the lyrics.
The “C’est Comme Ça” remix by Wet Leg was a pleasant break from the electronic elements displayed in the previous tracks. This remix is another standout in the album, as Wet Leg makes the song their own, without losing sight of the original work. The Remi Wolf remix of “You First,” nevertheless, is the album’s true standout. This remake, like “The News (Re: Linda Lindas),” sounds better than the original. The track is made even stronger than it already was by the closeness of the voices, the subtle shifts in instruments, and the atmospheric production.
While the songs on the album all have different production styles and sounds, all the tracks manage to get the true essence of Paramore right: teen angst. Emerging in 2004, the group’s songs have been loved by generations of teenagers ever since. Paramore’s influence on the emo, punk, and rock scenes spoke to millennial teens and now to Gen Z, with artists like Olivia Rodrigo re-vamping the genre. With the 20-year trend cycle, the resurgence of Y2K aesthetic, and early 2000s nostalgia, the band never lost its essence.