The highly-anticipated project by the music giants is finally on the way.

The day that many Paramore fans have anticipated has finally arrived! The rock band have released their first single in five years, This Is Why. The song also serves as the title track to their upcoming sixth album.

It’s no secret that Paramore have been working on a new album; it had been confirmed months before. The timeframe for its release, however, was a complete mystery. That was until the band began changing their profile pictures on social media, leaving a cryptic list that detailed the course of events for the next month for fans to decode, and a few Instagram posts added into the mix. The announcement of the album’s lead single came on September 16th, with the song being released on the 28th.

While waiting for the premiere of the single’s music video, the release date and album title had been mistakenly available in the description. Quickly taken to Twitter and confirmed by Atlantic Records, the album will be released on February 10th of next year.

This Is Why will be Paramore’s first album in six years upon its release; their last being the critically acclaimed After Laughter. While frontwoman Hayley Williams had been focusing on two solo albums, Petals for Armor and Flowers for Vases / Descansos, the group appears to have also spent a chunk of their time away working on their next project.

Proclaimed by the group as a “guitar driven” album, influence came from revisiting music that inspired them years ago. This is evident in their first single from the album; This Is Why immediately starts off with guitar riffs taking centre stage. Giving new wave-inspired riffs and a silky smooth baseline, Williams’ voice combining with them in the first verse is akin to bread and butter. Things get a bit heavier in the chorus, with guitar chords coming in in a more chaotic fashion and backing vocals following suit. It’s the perfect fusion of where Paramore left off with their sound in After Laughter and the current modern rock styles circulating the music scene. 

This Is Why is all about how everyone has their opinions and the overexertion of self-righteousness in the modern era and how being a major band, Williams being the front woman, in particular, has taken a toll. “This is why / I don’t leave the house / The coast is clear / But you won’t catch me out” is a straight-to-the-point expression of feeling better in solitude than facing everyone’s harsh judgements. The verses further cement this statement; taking opinions and shoving them, survival of the fittest, and even crimes of passion are all mentioned. It’s a call out to the culture over a sticky sweet arrangement that has the right elements of Paramore’s sound that fans enjoy. The comeback is exactly what it needs to be; a catching-up of sorts.

The music video, directed by Brendan Yates, centres around a movie production that coincides with Hayley Williams slowly losing it in passive but evident ways. The band plays the song while Williams sings and dances, various scenes are shot, and she is eventually seen applying lipstick in her trailer only to continue applying it all over her face and teeth to show her spiral. Once the song ends, the last moments are fixated on the mess made, slowly zooming into Williams looking into the camera through the mirror. Perhaps it’s a subtle expression of feminine rage and anxiety that compliments what This Is Why is about, or it’s a cliffhanger leading to something else.

While there is likely more to expect from Paramore before the album drops, the confirmation of its existence is already a sigh of relief. Preparing for a fall tour across America, including a few festival stops, Paramore have come back in full swing. With fans finally getting the album they had waited years for and the group stronger than ever, what happens next with them will be a fantastic ride, and they will show you why.

This Is Why will be released on February 10th via Fueled by Ramen and Atlantic Records.

See Paramore Live