Paramore - After Laughter
Critic Score
Based on 21 reviews
2017 Ratings: #44 / 940
Year End Rank: #49
User Score
2017 Rank: #77
Liked by 640 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Upset

This isn’t simply about Paramore producing what feels like the best pop album of the year. Sharing everything, it’s hard to think of another band on this scale who offer such honesty on such a grand scale.

100
Dork

Album five is different. The band are still a band but there are no brave faces here. There’s no hiding behind an idea, or pretending because you have to. Instead ‘After Laughter’ is ok with not being ok.

100
DIY
An album that’s ultimately OK with not being OK, it’s for that reason alone that it may just be perfect.
90
AllMusic

Despite the album's buoyantly pastel new wave tones, it unsurprisingly contains a truckload of hard-won maturity and a growing sense of battle fatigue.

90
God Is in the TV

For their fifth album, After Laughter, they’ve almost completely shed their emo rock past completely and blossomed into one of the finest pop bands around.

87
Paste

An undeniably hooky record that strays from its grunge-rock roots and finds the band in a place where they’ve found the fun in their craft once again.

82
GIGsoup

With 'After Laughter,' Paramore take the retro '80s step a lot of bands are taking without stumbling, delivering one of the year's best pop albums.

82
Sputnikmusic

They definitely haven’t perfected this new sound yet, but for the first time since their debut we can look at Paramore and truly say they are doing something different.

80
Drowned in Sound

Williams has managed to get out from under the pressure of having to be the perma-grinning frontwoman, and the emotional uncertainty that’s exposed is fascinating. Musically, meanwhile, this is as free as they’ve ever sounded. Again: Paramore have always been a pop band. They’ve just never been this proud of it.

80
Evening Standard
Paramore may lose a few of their pop-punk fans but they’ll gain a lot more with this stylish reinvention.
80
The Young Folks
Paramore’s talents have never been merely surface level, but a biting attitude underneath. Don’t let the candy-colored album cover fool you, the band’s sour punch is still alive and well.
80
The Observer

Excluding the syrupy "26" and seething "No Friend," After Laughter could be one of the year’s best pop albums.

80
The Guardian

After Laughter – candy-coated bitterness at its best – may steer them away from the Kerrang! crowd, but one thing remains consistent to Paramore’s emo roots – the theatrical mellifluence of internal angst.

80
Rolling Stone

A gorgeously produced, hook-studded record with cocked-eyebrow trepidation adding a jittery edge – a combination that's very of-the-moment in 2017, even if it veers outside of pop's rigid lines.

80
The Line of Best Fit

Stripped of all their teenage angst, despite all its sunny hooks, After Laughter is a deep album with plenty to say. It’s easily the most honest and mature Paramore have sounded yet and also probably, one of the best pop albums you hear all year.

80
No Ripcord

Not only does After Laughter regenerate Paramore's sound, but it rejects the cult of personality surrounding the group. By fusing the pop and rock of the 80s to their punk roots, they are now free to move in any direction going forward.

80
NME
Catharsis is never usually this joyous, but sometimes smiling through the pain works better than crying.
75
Consequence of Sound

Williams boasts undeniable talent, but her gusto requires the sharp songwriting and clever instrumentation of her bandmates, and After Laughter testifies to what happens when a singer like Williams is met with a group of quality instrumentalists.

75
Pitchfork

Just as this album highlights Williams’ most existentially despondent musings to date, it is also the most fizzy record Paramore have ever recorded.

70
The Needle Drop

After Laughter, Paramore's first album in four years, finds the pop punk band going through a synthpop metamorphosis.

60
Distorted Sound
What lets this album down is its delivery: as colourful and pleasant as it is, it’s far too safe and cheery.
BradTasteMusic
76

I was not expecting this album to be so ruthlessly dark. The sound is like a ocean beach party, and the lyrics are like “I WANT TO DIE! LIFE IS PAIN! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

This album has amazing production, great singing, great hooks, and wonderful pacing. Not every track is fireworks, but the hits really punch.

Full review on my YT Channel

salemwoods
86

people are probably gonna pretend to hate this record to keep up their niche & experimental persona, but, this album is good as fuck

LepardRyan
85

after seeing them live this gets an 8, I am in LOVE with Hayley Williams and would give a testicle to have dinner with her.

SkelSteve
83

Wow, such a happy and upbeat album!!!

ThaLunny3
91

I'm not crying I'm laughing :') :') :')

All joking (maybe?) aside, this album is so well written lyrically and musically and it really takes you on a journey through really what it is to feel emotions of any kind. It's like being told you're being given the most delicious candy on earth, that's packaged so beautifully and enticingly; but tastes bitter and sour....but also telling you that because you're pissed off you were promised this great taste and experience, its OKAY to be pissed off and ... read more

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Track List

1Hard Times
3:02
94
2Rose-Colored Boy
3:32
92
3Told You So
3:08
87
4Forgiveness
3:39
81
5Fake Happy
3:55
90
626
3:41
86
7Pool
3:52
88
8Grudges
3:07
83
9Caught in the Middle
3:34
87
10Idle Worship
3:18
89
11No Friend
3:23
73
12Tell Me How
4:20
85
Total Length: 42 minutes
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Added on: April 19, 2017