Paramore

As Paramore embark on the most successful year of their career, there seems to be no limit as to what they can accomplish. The band's last 2007 album RIOT! has sold over two million copies worldwide, the group was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008 for "Best New Artist" and even their live CD/DVD The Final Riot! has gone gold. However while these statistics are impressive, record sales have never been the driving force behind Paramore and that fact has never been as evident as it is on the group's highly anticipated third full-length brand new eyes. In fact, as excited as this group of young adults from Franklin, Tennessee are to have had the opportunity to tour with their heroes like Jimmy Eat World and No Doubt over the past few years, they seem even more ecstatic to share brand new eyes with the world. "I hope that every record is a progression for us, but this one is definitely a huge leap from RIOT!," the band's front woman Hayley Williams explains. "I just can't wait to get back on the road and start playing these new songs live."

Anyone who has seen the band on the road already knows Paramore have an incendiary live show; however with brand new eyes, the group has proved they're also able to juxtapose all of their indie-minded influences into a seamless collection of songs that embrace the future without abandoning the band's past. Additionally, the process of making brand new eyes seems to have taught the group--Hayley, guitarists Josh Farro and Taylor York, drummer Zac Farro and bassist Jeremy Davis--countless lessons about who they are both inside and outside of Paramore. "We've been through a ton of stressful, pressure-filled situations since RIOT! came out and I feel like I'm a completely new person," Hayley explains, adding that brand new eyes ended up being the perfect cathartic outlet for the band's creativity and, yes, frustration. "I think making the record was part of the healing process," Hayley elaborates. "It was good for me both as a person and as an artist."

Considering the fact that RIOT! went gold in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. and the band cracked the top five on the radio charts in the U.K. Australia, Mexico, Brazil, France, Germany and Southeast Asia, this global success story had a lot to live up to with brand new eyes. Co-produced by the band and Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), who Paramore also worked with on the track "Decode" from the double-platinum soundtrack for the movie Twilight, the album is also the first disc to officially feature new guitarist Taylor York -although York has been a writing partner and frequent touring member since the band's inception back in 2004. "It's really nice having Taylor there because he's the only other guitarist that I trust with our songs," Josh explains. "It's so exciting to be a five-piece again," Hayley concurs, "that's what we were originally intended to be, so I think the writing process was a lot more rewarding having him there." While Josh and Hayley once again made up the main songwriting team on brand new eyes, Hayley is also quick to stress that this album is the most collaborative creation of the band's career, a fact that is evident in the disc's sonic diversity.

In fact brand new eyes is a case study in the band's versatility and contains as many driving, first-pumping anthems like "Ignorance" as it does upbeat pop masterpieces like "Where The Lines Overlap" and lilting, acoustic ballads such as "Misguided Ghosts." "We really tried to venture out and experiment with our sound to see how far we could push ourselves this time around," Josh explains. "?Misguided Ghosts' is just finger-picking and that's not really Paramore's sound but for some reason it works," he continues. "I don't think it would have fit on RIOT! at all, but it's definitely the perfect song for this album." While Rob Cavallo was instrumental in helping the band fully realize their sound, the end result wouldn't have come to fruition in the