Paramore - Brand New Eyes

Rating

: * * * *

Verdict

:

Best album yet from young and heavy pop-punk success story

This album debuted at No. 1 on the New Zealand album charts last week and it's still going strong.

Paramore kept big players like Muse and Madonna from top spot in that first week, which might be a surprise to some, but probably not to the American band's legions of fans who have been building steadily since they formed in Franklin, Tennessee, in 2004. In that time they've released three albums - and singer Hayley Williams is still only 20 and the rest of the band not much older.

If second album

Riot

from 2007 was their breakthrough, selling around 10,000 copies here alone, then

Brand New Eyes

is the more accomplished and assured hit record. And driven by first single

Ignorance

, with the brilliantly sniping chorus-line "It's nice to meet you sir, I guess I'll go, I best be on my way out", it maintains the band's brazen pop grunt.

Adding to their popularity and status as teen idols is the song

Decode

(included here as a bonus track) which was the lead single to last year's hit vampire film,

Twilight

.

The thing about Paramore is they have a punk-pop-rock sound that verges on the melodic weight of post hardcore bands like Rise Against. The songs inflict a staunch slamming assault, yet it's still pure and simple pop music. In fact, make that power pop because songs like opener

Careful

, and singalong anthem,

Brick By Boring Brick

, kick and squirm with a sweaty energy. And thankfully there is a distinct lack of the self-piteous and bratty whinging prevalent in some of the other music of this style.

Williams does have an overwrought vocal style, but it adds a drama and slightly unhinged twist to their sound with cheeky and vicious lyrics like, "Next time you point the finger, I might have to bend it back and break it, break it off", from

Playing God.

Apart from the sweet sadness of

The Only Exception

, some of the album's slower moments lack life, with

Turn It Off

developing into a middle-of-the-road pop-punk plod and the acoustic singer/songwriter number,

Misguided Ghosts

, coming across nice enough, but it stunts the end of the album.

Paramore are at their best when they deliver slab after slab of melodic pop heaviness.

Scott Kara