Written by Tom Bedding
We all knew it would happen, after the infamous stripped-back album releases last year by a certain someone, 2021 would lead a lot of artists to do an ‘evermore’. Hayley Williams teased about doing such a thing and a prequel to her debut record, ‘Petals for Armour’, is now with us after its sudden release!
The second record in the Paramore front singer’s long awaited solo career, is a collection of songs recorded during lockdown, while we were all revelling in her solo debut release. Its very obvious that it is a full on lockdown album, its all self-produced etc and the songs don’t fully flow well, but thats part of the lockdown charm these days.
The overall result of ‘Flowers for VASES/ desansos’ is actually a fascinating and brilliant listening experience, acting as a prequel to the self healing that was ‘Petals For Armour’. Get comfy or go on your favourite walk, Hayley William’s newest release will take you on a beautiful and spiritual listening experience.
The beautiful opener that is, ‘First Thing To Go’, see’s Hayley trying to remember a figure of someone who had such a prevalent mark on the past, the lyrics of ‘I just talk to myself, I finish my own sentences, the way you used to’, really hits home the sudden loneliness felt when realising the significance of an ex’s presence. The gentle instrumentation is incredibly sweet and the inclusions of percussion later on, builds the song up to lovely overall sound.
Next is ‘My Limb’, which was the song that surfaced online during the week prior to the albums release, sending fans of her and Paramore, into a frenzy. The subdued pop punk song will attract many who love the singers band, while there is also a slight emo tone that really creates a dark and infectious atmosphere.
The piano and electric guitar are the main characters of the instrumentation, while Hayley Williams sings about how a breakup feels like an amputation and questions it with lyrics of ‘If your part of me is gone now, do I want to survive’.
Weirdly, I get the impression that Hayley Williams wrote ‘Asystole’ after binging the Netflix show, ‘Money Heist’. The song name is a term for a failing heart and the lyrics found in the song, really do hit hard on that concept in regards to love. One thing that stands out on this song is the beautiful tone of the piano, it tip toes around the chords and takes you along on this sense of heartbreak, it is beautifully worked by Williams.
Even Hayley herself has commented that this album is in a way her ‘evermore’ and that is very apparent in certain instrumentation and production choices. ‘Trigger’ is a great example, while still not feeling like a copy of Taylor Swift’s amazing work last year.
Lyrically we find Hayley questioning how her lyricism can never come from a place of contentment (‘I get off on telling everybody what went wrong, it makes me feel like the pain had a purpose’), while we hear 'Cause I got the trigger but you hold the gun, how come you never put the safety on’ hits you with such honest reflection, over a very ‘evermore/folklore’ shift in the song. Despite the obvious comparisons, the song is still a beautiful highlight that includes a sweet melody and wonderful production.
credit: Kerrang
A regular touch on ‘Flower For Vases..’ is the inclusion of starting songs with a brief segment of the demo recoding, creating a feeling that you hearing Hayley’s creative process and it being a lockdown record. ‘Over Those Hills’ has that for a few seconds and then arrives a pop/folk style, the rhythm has a great feel to it and the subtle melody is catchy. The guitar parts are reminiscent of Jake Bugg’s, ‘Kitchen Table’, yet the main hook is a great delight and the later guitar part is rather awesome.
Then with ‘Good Grief’, the artist is clinging on to a past relationship, even if the partner did play music that she would never sing. Touching on how there is no good grief, which is an interesting topic, it is accompanied by some really good backing vocals, that deliver the tones message even more. 'Good Grief' is short and sweet, which is probably not surprising, as there is not a really interesting or engaging spark to the music.
There is a rather lovely chord progression that is picked away on guitar on ‘Wait On’, while the feeling of blue sky on the track is needed by the mid point of the record. Overall this song looks at how the world and existence keeps on going, despite how there are birds that will never be able to fly and that there are still hearts to be broken. It's a dark acceptance of fait but nevertheless the song offers some light within the difficult truths found throughout the album.
Following on, straight away there is a beautiful piano and a very close vocal delivery on ‘KYRH’, however there is a more of a repeating and basic lyrics on the track. Despite the atmosphere being delivered brilliantly well, it feels like an interlude more than anything and Im unsure if that is suppose to be the case.
Williams then looks back at her own journey, ranging from the early Paramore days to the moment she and her Mother left her step-father on ‘Inordinary’. The delivery of the song is wonderful as we are taken away into a dream. We are left with the words painting the scenes of the surreal and bizarre fortunate Hayley Williams experienced with Paramore at the start.
Later in the song, the listener is given the moment on how it felt being reborn when Hayley returned home to see her Mother ready in the car, to leave her partner. The backing instrumentation captures that verse exquisitely.
It is the feeling the album creates with its textures and direction of the lyrics that somehow keeps you engaged, despite not offering a lot of variety in taste. You get that sense on ‘HYD’, where we are pondering over an old lovers life, it does not break away from the albums blueprint but still tackling loneliness and contemplation differently.
However the demo version starting the song with a plane going overhead is a highlight, we hear Hayley chuckling after the bad timing of the recording. The song as a whole is rather nice, it has a sense of pop rock to it but still keeps to ‘Flower for VASES’ minimal approach. The song's chorus opens with a lot of purpose, like the petals of the music opening with a sense of desire.
Again there is a Swift nod within the introduction of ‘No Use I Just Do’, you could imagine Jack Antonoff at the piano on this one. Sadly it does not do much, repeating the fact there is not use I just love you, sad to say the the song also has no use too.
It's hard not to mention the ‘evermore’ mood of this release but to completely paint everything about this record with that brush, would be so unfair. 'FLowers' is inspired by Taylor's work at times but it is vastly different in sounds and ambitions.
‘Find Me Here’ was included on an EP from the ‘Petals For Armour’ era but has been rerecorded for this LP. Its folk rock nature is blissful and the double vocals give the song a great scent to it, the song is rather short but is rather beautiful and a great moment in the final third of the album.
Weirdly we have an interlude as the penultimate track, it works but I am curious to know why at this point. ‘Decscansos’ begins with the sounds of a child, then haunting vocals float around over a gentle piano playing before it closes.
‘Flowers for VASES..’ has the perfect finish to it, with Williams looking back at her life. From school life to her recent music, showing off her troubles so barely to millions. It does come to life in a way we don’t see on the whole album, a surprising turn that does wonders.
The electric guitars build up to a whole band like closing moment, acting like the start of a new stage, essentially feeling like a sense of reflection of the past, it does act like prequel record to the debut release. It’s a fitting ending with the fuller sound, it really leaves you wanting to jump straight into the artists previous effort.
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