FEATURE:
The Best Albums of 2025
Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
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I love everything…
PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Gray
about Hayley Williams. A phenomenal songwriter and band lead of Paramore, she is someone who is a role model. Williams first uploaded seventeen of Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party’s songs to her website on 28th July, and later released them as standalone tracks onto streaming services on 1st August. Williams self-released the album on 28th August on Post Atlantic, an independent imprint. A couple of additional songs were added to Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party on 24th October and 7th November. In terms of reviews and acclaim, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is up there with the best of the year. An astounding album that has won so many five-star reviews, I will get to some of those reviews to end. There weren’t a tonne of interviews about Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. You would think there would be something extensive from The Guardian or Rolling Stone. However, there are one or two online examples. Hayley Williams spoke with THE FACE in September about her third solo studio album. A top ten album in the U.K., it was not an especially massive success in her native U.S. However, in terms of taking a step forward, I think her latest album is even better than 2021’s FLOWERS for VASES / descansos:
“Twenty years into her career, Hayley Williams is finally an independent artist. When she was scouted by Atlantic Records at the age of 14, Williams was offered the dream of being a solo star. She pushed back, telling the label she’d rather make music with the scrappy emo band she’d started with her friends from school. As we all know, sticking to her guns was a good call.
Paramore went on to define the noughties pop-punk scene and beyond. Their emotionally raw anthems have inspired everyone from PinkPantheress and Olivia Rodrigo to SZA and Lil Uzi Vert, and over the past five years, the group has become bigger than ever (they’re currently in the Top 20 most streamed rock bands of all time on Spotify). But because of the 360 deal Williams signed when she was 15, Atlantic Records got a percentage from every Paramore record, T‑shirt and ticket sold.
“If it wasn’t for being young, ignorant and hard-headed, maybe we would have felt exactly how oppressive a contract like that could be,” Williams says of the band’s early years, sitting cross-legged on a park bench in London’s Primrose Hill. Hers was the first ever 360 contract (in most cases, record labels just profit from record sales and streaming) and the practice has been heavily criticised for taking the power from young artists ever since.
Paramore finished their obligations to Atlantic with the release of 2023’s fiery alt-rock spectacular, This Is Why. “I just thought it’d be like a birthday party. Oh, we’re finally done. Freedom. But we don’t really talk that much about the grief that can come with good things,” says Williams. “It was a giant change that also left me asking ‘what am I going to push against now?’”
That sadness lit a fuse, and Williams poured misery, rage, frustration and loneliness into her snarling new solo record Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party, which was properly released last week. EDAABP is, according to Williams, a puke bucket of all her influences and everything she needed to say. Glistening pop, new wave, emo and punk all feature, as does tender folk and sweeping electronic music. “It’s a lot of chaos,” she grins. “If I don’t get the poison out, it’s never going to come out.” Stand-out tracks include Mirtazapine, a scuzzy punk love-letter to anti-depressants, while the twinkling emo of True Believer sees Hayley deconstructing faith and the alt-pop swagger of Ice In My OJ has her calling out the “dumb motherfuckers” who she made rich.
Hayley Williams has done solo records before, but not with this much freedom. A handful of crossover collaborations in the 2010s were deliberately billed as Hayley Williams from Paramore, while 2020’s solo album Petals For Armor and its 2021 follow-up Flowers For Vases were both full of experimental, delicate electronic music that could never be billed as Paramore. “At the time that felt so liberating and so freeing, but I listen back now and can see how I was being a little restrained.”
This is a hangover from spending most of her career trying to convince people that Paramore are a band, and not a glorified solo project. “I was really sensitive to it because it hurt my friends’ feelings,” she says, having also experienced the brunt of pop-punk misogyny, being one of the few women in the scene that had a prominent platform. Thanks to a lot of therapy, “those voices just feel so quiet and far away now. It’s nice to be able to laugh at the meatheads on the internet who unfortunately did a lot of damage back in the day,” she grins. You can buy a T‑shirt that says ‘Hayley Williams Is My Favourite Band’ from her online store, which is just one of the ways she’s reclaiming her own legacy with this solo era.
“In a lot of ways, writing this record gave the 15-year-old version of myself, who felt like she had lost a lot of her power by signing to a major label, a voice. It freed her, so I don’t have to be arrested in that stage of development anymore”.
There are a few reasons why I want to include a lot of this interview from The New York Times. The conversation is really interesting, and Hayley Williams is always such an incredible interviewee. I also love the photos taken by Meghan Marin. Such extraordinary shots that add these captivating and wonderfully rich visuals to the chat! I would urge people to read the entire interview. I am not able to include all the photos here:
“COSCARELLI Is that why it took you so long to make a solo album, that resistance to being singled out? And what changed in 2019, 2020 that allowed you to make that leap?
WILLIAMS I was a huge fan of what Zac was doing with his first solo project, HalfNoise. He had gone away for like seven years from the band and really found himself. I believe he found himself in his 20s in a way that Taylor and I still haven’t.
COSCARELLI Because you didn’t get off the ride.
WILLIAMS Arrested development is a thing. I just thought, “He’s doing it and it’s not a big deal.” It’s feeding the band, if anything. My divorce had been finalized and I really got to process it, and a lot of that stuff needed to come out.
I’m also a fan of bands like Talking Heads or Radiohead — all the members have their own projects. I was just interested in that life, because I still don’t really know how this all shakes out. We’re just gonna keep getting older and I want to be an artist until I die. That’s going to look a thousand ways. So this was kind of the first way that I got to try it out. And those first two albums, now when I look back at it, I’m like, “Man, I still was so cautious.”
CARAMANICA I wonder what the open reception to those albums felt like, especially after being so firmly insistent in the earliest years: “It’s not me, it’s us.”
WILLIAMS I don’t typically like to do the thing that people expect or want me to do. I think that’s probably not always a great thing about me. So I did feel a bit defeatist about finally giving into this thing that I had been resisting, like, my whole life. It was really scary. I think the one thing that sort of got me through that was the fact that we had been around for so long at that point. There was some level of understanding of the context of where I come from.
This project, and the way that people are talking to me about it, I get to feel like a whole person. I don’t have to have this caveat, like, “Well, I’m in this band.” I trust that people know that.
PHOTO CREDIT: Meghan Marin
CARAMANICA It seems like the artist you want to be is one that can reference the Bloodhound Gang (“Discovery Channel”) and then two songs later have a song about the South’s legacy of racial tensions (“True Believer”).
WILLIAMS While I was deconstructing my faith and my religious upbringing from around age 19, I really didn’t realize how much of Paramore for me was a religious experience, a God pillar in my life. Paramore is the backdrop to every conversation. So songs like “Discovery Channel” are really me kind of like roaming the halls of whatever that structure is and just trying to take it apart more.
“True Believer” — I’m never not ready to scream at the top of my lungs about racial issues. I don’t know why that became the thing that gets me the most angry. I think because it’s so intersectional that it overlaps with everything from climate change to L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ issues.
I reference this neighborhood in Franklin, really close to where I grew up called Hard Bargain that this formerly enslaved man bought from his former enslaver. It’s still there, predominantly Black families, and it’s protected now. But of course, Franklin and Nashville are being gentrified all the time.
The reason I was writing about Nashville a lot is that we came home from tour and I thought, “Well, I’m gonna go to L.A. — get me outta here. Trump just got elected again and I don’t wanna be in a red state.”
COSCARELLI There’s a line on the title track, “Ego Death,” where you say, “I’ll be the biggest star / in this racist country singer’s bar.” Do you want to name names?
WILLIAMS I’m always talking about Morgan Wallen. I don’t care.
COSCARELLI I think that relates directly to Paramore and your fan base. There’s been a lot written over the years about its diversity, and Paramore’s Black fans in particular.
WILLIAMS I feel that, too, now more than I did growing up. It definitely shifted around the self-titled record. We started saying yes to a lot more. We were playing “The Voice.” I think a lot more people got introduced to our band during that time — people that maybe weren’t welcome in the scene that we grew up in.
PHOTO CREDIT: Meghan Marin
Songs like “Ain’t It Fun,” when Taylor and I were writing that, we were playing these synth parts and going, “It’s like Stevie Wonder, you know?” I’ll never forget watching “Stop Making Sense” while we were recording “After Laughter” and the camera panning across the crowd, seeing how diverse it was. I just got really teary. And obviously there’s some of the best Black musicians onstage with them and they’re all working together. It just felt like this celebration of humanity. And I was like, “That’s what I want to feel like.”
CARAMANICA Is the scale of the music on the new solo record designed explicitly to avoid the chance of a big hit like Paramore’s “Still Into You” happening?
WILLIAMS This is my chance to emulate the music and the artists that made me want to do this in the first place, none of which were big artists. It’s one of my favorite bands of all time, but I don’t really listen to Paramore — I just love what Paramore is about. I think if a song blew up, who’s gonna complain about that? Writers want that moment more than anything.
CARAMANICA You don’t feel like it would pull you in a direction you don’t want to go right now?
WILLIAMS No, because I’m not impressed by it.
CARAMANICA You’ve been there, you’ve been in those rooms. You’ve gone onstage with Taylor Swift opening on the Eras Tour.
WILLIAMS Yeah, and honestly, I loved that. We got asked to be on the biggest tour in music history. I’m never gonna see photos of myself dressed as Freddie Mercury at Wembley and not be psyched that we did that.
That was like the honor of our [expletive] life and career, but there’s nothing like a Paramore show. All day long, I’d rather be at a Paramore show with the people that have grown up with us. It feels like family.
I’m so honored to get to do it and I’m also very relieved to get to try something new and flex different muscles. You gotta deconstruct this system that you were a part of on multiple levels, gotta tear down Paramore the same way I had to tear down my evangelical upbringing. I have to do it for me to grow up because I don’t wanna be stuck in a traumatized 18-year-old’s headspace for the rest of my life.
I’m 36, it’s not cute anymore, you know?”.
Two reviews of Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party to include before wrapping up. An album that tackles depression, ego, loss and reputation, it could have been a heavy or one-dimensional release. However, as you will see in this review from Kerrang!, that is not the case. In fact, it is a fearless and year-defining release from one of the greatest artists and songwriters of modern times. This enormously varied and explorative album.
“It’s been a perplexing summer so far for Hayley Williams fans, feeling like a whiplash of violent yellow aesthetics and sorrow-driven songs. The first glimpse of this new era came in July, arriving like sprawled out puzzle pieces on a ’00s-inspired website, which would ultimately become the Paramore vocalist's third full-length, Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party. Building the jigsaw, though, was a task awarded to us, and while the vision is near complete, she's already teasing there are two more songs to come.
It’s hard to think what else could be missing from this body of work; the most beastly out of all of Hayley's solo records, EDAABP is somewhat of an enigma given she has remained relatively tight-lipped on the inspirations behind it, and the lack of order disrupting any straight narrative to begin with. The first chunk of the album nails her tactic of making high-impact, fizzing tracks that sound so incredibly alive, as an undercurrent of depression runs beneath if you listen closely enough – while the chorus of Glum ascends heavenly, Hayley quizzes, ‘Do you ever feel so alone / That you could implode / And no one would know?’
In this way, this album harks back to Paramore’s After Laughter. There’s a climbing synth motif on Love Me Different that feels familiar with this in mind, and many tracks feature the recurring theme of water – a metaphor Hayley uses to describe love and her views on relationships that she’s ran with across all of her solo records, but notably on After Laughter’s Pool.
While she excavates even deeper into herself on this release, Hayley also casts her net far and wide lyrically: True Believer, an examination of religious hypocrisy and racism, is bold, brilliant, and quietly scathing. Accompanied by dystopian, spaced-out piano, Hayley draws on how these themes play out across America: ‘They pose in Christmas cards with guns as big as all their children / They say that Jesus is the way / But then they gave him a white face.’
Marking her first release outside of Atlantic Records, Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party is the most vast summation of Hayley’s story so far. A musical purge of trauma patterns, depression, love, loss, and of course, ego, the wit and honesty of Hayley’s lyricism is the shining star of this work. It’s an unboundless exploration of a life lived under the scrutiny of misogyny and in the public eye from one of our time’s most creative and fearless artists.
Verdict: 5/5”.
I am aware Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party has different versions, so the reviews might not be talking about the same sequence of songs. However, it is clear that every critic who has heard Hayley Williams’s third studio album has been blown away by its ambition and consistency. Such a sprawling or long album could have contained filler. Everything on Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is a flawless masterpiece. This is what AllMusic write in their review:
“Hayley Williams is sad and dealing with it on her third solo album, 2025's intimately rendered Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. The follow-up to 2020's Petals for Armor and 2021's Flowers for vases/descansos, it also arrives two years after This Is Why, her Grammy-winning sixth album with pop/rock outfit Paramore. In contrast to that album's angular post-punk dissonance and cutting political invective, Ego Death finds Williams in a ruminative mood, coming to terms with her depression, romantic desires, and sometimes difficult relationships with her Paramore bandmates. Produced with Canon Blue songwriter/instrumentalist Daniel James, the album showcases a modicum of sonic exploration, whether it be the fuzzy '90s shoegaze of "Mirtazapine," the childlike vocal processing in the Beck-like "Glum," or the gauzy, Karen Carpenter-esque multi-tracked harmonies of "Dream Girl in Shibuya." Yet these are relaxed, organic productions where the experimentation never gets in the way of the pure emotions at the core of each song. There is a diaristic quality to Ego Death and one could easily assume Williams is writing about specific people in her life. Are Paramore siblings drummer Zac Farro and former guitarist Josh Farro the subjects of "Brotherly Hate?" Probably. Is the bass-heavy "Hard" about the fall-out from her divorce with New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert? Most likely, yes.
Often, there's overlap, as in "Ice in My OJ," where Williams embraces a rapper's swagger, singing "I got ice in my OJ, I'm a cold hard b****/A lot of dumb mutherf***ers that I made rich." That she also repeatedly screams "I'm in a band" on the chorus speaks to the raw, end-of-a-rope emotionality of the album. Yet the answer to whether a rumored romantic relationship with Paramore guitarist Taylor York is at the center of much of Ego Death remains enticingly elusive. Is he the titular subject of "Disappearing Man" with his "wild hair and stare that could melt stone"? Or is he the lover Williams thought was always going to catch her and now has to "watch me fall" in "Parachute?" Regardless, Ego Death certainly feels like a break-up album, both literally in terms of a relationship ending and as a metaphor for Williams' own personal and creative rebirth. On "True Believer" she reckons with her conservative Christian Southern roots, especially as a California-honed rock singer who continues to live in Nashville. There are also hints that even the best relationships can have problems, as in "Love Me Different," where a buoyant synth groove evoking Paramore's "Hard Times" belies romantic troubles. She underscores this sense of emotional bottoming out on the title track, singing "Can only go up from here." Musically, all of this hangs together with the relatable warmth and engaging lyricism that mark the best of Williams' work with and without Paramore. With Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, Williams has crafted an album about letting go and finding a way to move forward honestly, and perhaps most importantly on her own terms”.
I am going to finish up now. Once again, I think the absolute best albums of the year have been made by women. That is not to discount male artists, though you can look at exceptional albums from Lily Allen (West End Girl), ROSALÍA (LUX) and Hayley Williams and they are on this different level. Albums that you listen to and are instantly stunned and moved by. You come back to them and they stay with you. I admire Hayley Williams greatly and am not surprised she has recorded one of the best albums of the year. I am not sure if there will be more music from Paramore but, to be honest, I would rather hear solo stuff. She is on this rarefied level and I feel her next studio album will be as astonishing and acclaimed as Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. This is a truly special album that…
DEMANDS to be heard.