There’s still about a month left to go before Paramore‘s highly anticipated sixth studio album, This Is Why, arrives, but it is finally beginning to take shape with the release of new single “C’est Comme Ça.”
Described by frontwoman Hayley Williams as a dance punk return to form, the brand new track arrived Thursday (Jan. 12). It’s the third single to be unveiled off This Is Why, due out Feb. 10, and follows lead single and title track “This Is Why” along with “The News.”
“C’est Comme Ça” largely features the Nashville native delivering sharp, irony-clad lyrics in spoken word form over drummer Zac Farro’s driving percussion and guitarist Taylor York’s percussive riffs. The caustic nature of the verses is turned on its head, though, with every repetition of its cloying main hook: “C’est comme ça, na na na na na na na.”
“I know that regression is rarely rewarded/ I still need a certain degree of disorder,” Williams belts, a rare moment on the track where she sings instead of speaks. “I hate to admit getting better is boring/ But the high cost of chaos?/ Who can afford it?”
Fans have been waiting for the single since Paramore began teasing it in the week prior to its release. At one point, the band posted a cryptic video to its Instagram story, captioning it with nothing but the letters “ccc.”
“I’m trying to get un-addicted to a survival narrative,” Williams said of the song’s meaning in a statement. “The idea of imminent doom is less catastrophic to me than not knowing anything about the future or my part in it. The guys and I are all in much more stable places in our lives than ever before. And somehow that is harder for me to adjust to.”
The trio’s newfound stability comes after a five-year hiatus, which Williams, Farro and York spent taking a break from the demands of being one of the world’s best-loved pop punk groups to reevaluate and explore solo projects. They haven’t released an album since dropping After Laughter in 2017, and prior to their string of live shows last year, they hadn’t toured in nearly as much time.
Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Williams said Paramore “had a really good time getting back into a little bit of dance punk vibes” when making “C’est Comme Ça.”
“I had been listening to a lot of Dry Cleaning and Yard Act and just artists that talk a lot over great, cool, music,” she shared. “So I guess I was just feeling poetic and feeling a bit critical of myself and fused all that stuff.”
Stream Paramore’s newest single “C’est Comme Ça” below:
