I have reached that point in my life where everything I do is tinged with a hint of nostalgia. I know this because I spent 90% of my day today listening to the music of my early teen-hood.
Listening to the music of your past is always a strange experience. Sometimes you realise it wasn't half as good as you thought it was - I'm looking at you, Cobra Starship - and sometimes you wonder what the hell you were doing - why did I like Family Force 5 so much? (Oh wait - this is why!) But oftentimes, you just end up indulging in your past self. You think about the you that existed when you spent all day listening to those bands, or dancing to those music videos. It's an amazing and, even, enlightening experience. It's almost an education in yourself, and how you got to the place you're at now. Well, at least it is for me.
When I was like twelve to fourteen years old, I had like a semi-scene/emo phase. I was deeply into the music - but not so much the look. I read Kerrang! weekly and bought Rock Sound every month. My favourite bands were at least slightly obscure - Hollywood Undead, Breathe Carolina, Anarbor etc - but, like all the emo kids, I listened to those classic favourites: Fall Out Boy and Paramore. Today was my FOB-Paramore nostalgia day. I listened to tons of their old stuff, and watched all of the Youngblood Chronicles (really weird shit...) and, whilst listening to Paramore, I started reading stuff, which I kinda wish I didn't. Let me explain.
So, when I first got into Paramore, I really loved the Farro brothers. I don't know what it was about them, I just found the two of them, with their deep, dark, sorrowful eyes, so damn endearing. So when I found out, after my phase had ended, that the brothers had left the band, I was kinda heartbroken. I still thought Taylor and Jeremy were the more attractive ones (my fourteen-year-old self was a little more shallow than current me...) so it didn't matter to me much after I heard. I thought it would be bizarre to have a three-person version of the band, but they'd had a thousand different line-ups in the past so it didn't bother me much.
Back to the present: So I started reading the Spotify bio of Paramore and I wanted to read Josh's leaving statement. What he said in the statement didn't really surprise me at all. I don't know what it was, but I always got the feeling that Hayley was apart from the rest of them, and, after Riot!, I always saw Josh and Zac as somewhat separate to the rest of the group. It was like there were two different groups then Hayley. Because of this though, it did surprise me that Taylor was technically in the band before Hayley.
Anyway, I then looked to the Paramore website for information about past-Paramore. But there was none, and that really irked me. I could understand it from one angle. But, at the same time, I think it's incredibly immature to ignore a moment of conflict in your past. What they said on the website's 'About' page wasn't so much an about the band as it was a separation from their former lineup. Let me give a few examples... Jeremy says the album is "a lot happier and brighter album that people might expect... We've wanted to write songs like this for so long, but weren't emotionally ready. Now we are." He's virtually saying: "hey, we wanted to write happy songs before but Josh and Zac were such deadweights that we couldn't do it. We just weren't happy with them here, but now we are!" Harsh, right? And then there's Taylor's little "we really mean it when we say this album feels like the record our band was always supposed to make", as if the Farros were holding them back from making it that whole time. I mean maybe they were, but it just seems like a bit of an attack at them. Lastly, it's the fact that Hayley says "the best way to give it a name was just to call it what it is. This album is us." You see, what she's saying is that, Paramore is Hayley, Taylor and Jeremy. No one else. Not Josh. Not Zac. Just those three. They named their album Paramore to show everyone that they - not Josh and Zac - are Paramore, and that really pissed me off.
The problem with Paramore, as they exist now but also as they always have been, is that they are immature. They have failed to acknowledge the breakdown of their existence as a unit, and they have failed to acknowledge each one's individual impact on the situation. There was no apology to Josh and Zac, there was no appreciation of them being part of their past. It's depressing. They should be able to say that they've changed since the Farros left. And they should acknowledge the influence they had on them. It's like having a leg chopped off and going on as if it was never there. Because people know it was there. People remember it was there and people loved and appreciated it as part of the body as a whole and now it's not there and there are many, many questions.
Honestly, I didn't want to listen to their new music and enjoy it after realising all this - but I unfortunately did. I just hope the three of them get their act together and talk about that formative period that made and grew them to what they now are. But for now, back to Fall Out Boy.
