Brand New Eyes (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by the American rock band Paramore, released on September 29, 2009, through Fueled by Ramen as a follow-up to their sophomore album Riot! (2007). It was produced in collaboration with Rob Cavallo and recorded in Hidden Hills, California from January to March 2009. It is their first album with touring guitarist Taylor York as a permanent member, and was written by Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, with York contributing songwriting to four tracks. It was also the band's final album before Josh and Zac Farro's departure from the band in 2010. Zac would later rejoin in 2017 prior to the release of their fifth studio album, After Laughter. Praised by critics for its songwriting and the band's increased maturity, the album won Best Album at the Kerrang! Awards 2010, and "The Only Exception" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Several publications included Brand New Eyes in their year-end lists. The album produced five singles: "Ignorance", "Brick by Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", "Careful", and "Playing God", all of which have been commercially successful in the United States and internationally. Brand New Eyes debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 selling 175,000 copies in its first week, becoming their biggest album on that chart, until their self-titled album debuted at number one in 2013. The album topped the charts in many countries across the world including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, making it the band's second-highest charting album to date. The album was certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), and Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). It was also certified gold in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The band promoted the album with the Brand New Eyes World Tour, playing shows in North America, Asia, Europe, etc., as well as with festival appearances.
A former roommate liked this group and went to one of their concerts - I hadn’t heard of them at the time. Now I have and I see what he liked! This is a great rock album - love the lead singer, she’s great!
paramore is an experience that should have been included in the orginal 1001 book. Glad to enjoy it now
Yeah! An absolute tour de force by one the greatest bands of all time. Love this album and love Paramore.
Love Paramore, and this is no exception
Another perfect album for the list! Thank you!
One of the rare few indie bands that’s managed to make it big without selling out their core sound too much. I’m not familiar with much of their discography, so this was a nice gut punch of technical instrumentals and Williams’ piercing lyricism. Things get a bit homogeneous towards the back half of the LP, but most of the tracks demanded my attention and surprised me with their range – really enjoyed the listen overall, and was appreciative of the chance to listen to some fundamental late-aughts indie!
I have had to get my head round Paramore a bit. I have grown respect for them in recent years when various friends have explained why they are good, their extensive repertoire and style. This must be the album I know the best, plenty of hits that were on the radio at the time. I enjoyed it enough! I respect the song writing and Haley is an incredible vocalist. Still probably not going to be my thing going forward, but like I said I do respect it rather than writing off as silly emo
Excellent
Rating: 10/10
This album has one of my favorite songs, a number of other bops, and the rest are still good at their worst. Hayley’s iconic vocals paired with the boys’ quick drum fills and snappy guitar riffs are always a fun time. Possibly their best record. I always enjoy listening. 4/5
Alternative rock, pop-punk, emo. Me ha gustado. Un 4.
Muy buen disco de rock, con una voz femenina intensa y, en ocasiones, un tanto desgarradora. Canciones guitarreras en su justa medida y con buenos tempos conseguidos. Me ha sorprendido y gustado gratamente
Somehow Paramore has passed me by and I don’t recall hearing any songs but this is really good. Time to dig into the discography
Another band I keep hearing about but hadn't really listened to. Seemed like pretty standard alt-rock tinted power pop, more pop than alt to my ear. Good solid musical performances all around. Lyrically pretty much boyfriend/girlfriend problems fare as far as I could make out. Perfectly fine, not particularly special.
This was pretty good. Not to take anything away from Hayley Williams, who gives a perfectly listenable performance, but I think I'd enjoy this with a less polished vocal. Fave Songs: Ignorance, Brick by Boring Brick, Turn It Off, Careful
It all sounds formulaic and even the better songs ("Ignorance", "Brick by Boring Brick", "The Only Exception") sound a bit bleak and not very remarkable. I knew Paramore before and was never impressed. Reading their wiki page I understand that at the time of this album the band members were really young. That is why I will not be too harsh. Maybe that's also why they remind me of the first hit singles of Avril Lavigne. I hope they will improve and rise with age, but at this moment/album, it's just not that good.
A really nice album. Much much better than the next album. The Only Exception is a pretty song.
Cool, teenage rock, that still sounds pretty good. Not my favourite band, but very relaxing music.
4.5
My sister used to have this album and I heard it alot through our shared wall. It's quite energetic and in certain songs the riffage really stands out. Songwriting-wise it's focused on catchy hooks, and well, it works. This poppunk album mainly landed with girls, which is good, but should expand beyon that. Certainly more Fall Out Boy than Avril Lavigne.
There's too much emo intensity, too much alt-rock anger, and too many pop-punk tropes for one's tastes. Just sounds like skating rink music for the post-skating-rink era. Not bad – and certainly one gets the appeal – but one hears nothing much one can get excited about, personally. "Playing God" and "Turn It Off" are most tolerable (least intolerable?) tracks. "The Only Exception" and the last few songs show they shoulda stuck to softness and maybe the earnest side of emo. More jejune than sophomoric, one would put this on the list proper but only to replace the likes of Lorde or Fiona Apple and maybe even Green Day (and of course any metal record).
Final song "Decode - Twilight Soundtrack Version," say no more. The distinct sound of Teen Feelings in the year 2009
I have a weird relationship with Paramore because I like some of their stuff but never really bothered to listen to them properly, even though the whole female-fronted-pop-punk scene makes up quite a bit of my music library. Brand New Eyes doesn't tell me much I didn't already know, it's really good at times (Decode is great and one of their songs I regularly listen to), Ignorance and Brick By Boring Brick similarly, but there's quite a bit of filler where they slow it down and go more ballady and I think that's part of why I never really got into them. 3/5, I've heard better but it's still enjoyable for what it is.
Know it's fine. Alt-punk-pop-rock. Massively proficient. Its just not for me and it washes over a bit
Avril Lavigne's moody older sister (and she was already a moody older sister).
Paramore is pretty good. They're also a rare punk band that hasn't fallen off (yet) and arguably even got better with every album. Not my favorite of theirs, but still a good time. And girl punk will always be better than guy punk, we all know it to be true.
Not their best, but a good pick.
I always thought Paramore was just okay. I looked their previous record Riot! More than this one though this one does have the stone in it from Twilight, which despite being a shit movie, had a weirdly banging soundtrack.
If you listened to that one Paramore song like a 1000 times when it was always on the radio you probably have a guess as to what a full album sounds like and you’re right. Fun little pop punk / alt rock drive into the office this morning
Paramore built a name for themselves in the wave of Warped Tour pop punk bands during the 2000s, particularly with their album Riot!. However, much like their fanbase, Paramore was growing and changing in different ways. Troubles between the founding members would lead to this being the last album with guitarist Josh Farro and drummer Zac Farro. Emotionally, you can tell a lot of that turbulence is in the songwriting of Brand New Eyes along with the shift in sound. While still rooted in some pop punk conventions, Paramore slows down many of their songs on this album to gear it towards a more general rock sound. No doubt, this is a maturing moment for the band. If we're being honest, this album is frontloaded. Tracks get a lot less memorable after The Only Exception, with the only exception (haha!) being the emotional mammoth that is All I Wanted. That makes for an album that's half great and half alright, putting it somewhere in the middle. I think a more fleshed-out album could've made this the easy standout in Paramore's discography, but instead it serves as an album with just some standout songs. Not a bad consolation. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Hard to say. What about Riot? I don't think Paramore were particularly strong at making albums, but they definitely had some hits worth mentioning.
Paramore is one of those bands that I know is good and talented but I just don’t seek out their music. This album was fine, paramore has a very distinct sound mainly due to their female lead. I wouldn’t replay it but it’s not a bad album. 6.0/10
This was fine! not as iconic as Riot but very much a natural progression for the band and felt like a very logical maturation.
I’m Just not a fan of paramore,
Paramore is bland as fuck. But Hayley Williams is hot, so that gets a point. 2/5.
Hayley Williams ser ju snäll ut åtminstone.