Paramore Go to War in Defiant "Now" Video
Paramore addressed the bitter 2010 departure of two original members in song before—"Monster" featured the loaded line, "I'm not your villain/Despite what you're always preaching"—but the punk trio's latest video may be their most direct statement on the split yet.
In the video for "Now," Hayley Williams awakens in the midst of a raging battle, kept safe from the clubs of the enemy only by her startlingly red hair (no, really). "We lost the battle, but won the war/I'm bringing my sinking ship back to the shore," Williams defiantly sings. "Starting over, heading in. There's a time and a place to die, but this ain't it." Boom! Now that's how you rally the troops.
Vocally, Williams incorporates previously unheard influences into the band’s sound, yelping unmistakably like Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O when she shouts "don't try to take this from me!" The frenetic guitar work also recalls the New York band and, believe it or not, Paramore doing YYYs sounds great.
At the end of the video, Williams escapes an impending death blow at the hands of the enemy leader and diffuses the hatred and tension with an impassioned hug. Is that a message to the exiled Farro Brothers? A statement about where Paramore is right now emotionally? Total coincidence?
It's up for fans to decide, but it's hard not to take a video set on a battlefield as a deliberate choice for the band's strategically self-titled fourth album.
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