Hayley Williams Powers Through Grief to Deliver a Solo Masterpiece

Hayley Williams has always been bold — from her brightly-hued hair dye to her kickass attitude as the lead singer of Paramore. When it comes to music, the singer is equally unafraid. She belts her heart out and spits brutally honest lyrics across the band’s discography and her own solo albums, 2020’s Petals for Armor and 2021’s Flowers for Vases/Descansos. But never has Williams sounded as brave as she does on her third album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. “I’ll be the biggest star at this fucking karaoke bar,” she declares on the moody title track. The song’s chorus repeats one line over and over again (“Can only go up from here”) as Williams gives up on shooting for the moon and settles for a more modest version of fame. It’s ironic that a song about a literal ego death should be a highlight of Williams’ strongest solo work to date. On Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, she’s headed well beyond the stars — and she knows it.

“Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” and 16 other songs were surprise-released at the beginning of August after the singer initially uploaded the collection of songs on her website via an old-school web player. Despite being long enough for a full LP, the collection wasn’t marketed as an album. (Even though it totally was). But now, after Williams gave Ego Death a properly long name true to her emo roots, and an official track list, the project finally feels complete.

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The track list was a major piece of this puzzle. Once Williams uploaded the 17 singles to streaming platforms just a few days after the web player, fans immediately created their own track lists through playlists. An overzealous Haleyhead even compiled all of the fan-made trackl ists into a website. Just like the web player, the experience felt plucked from the early-aughts days of Limewire downloads and the detailed labor of CD and cassette mixtapes. Williams said she wanted to shirk the weighty responsibility onto fans and gain inspiration from the way they received the music. But one listen to Ego Death and it’s apparent the unconventional rollout was by design. Every heartfelt lyric and song transition details how Williams has clawed her way out of major loss and grief to uncover a new version of herself.

Not only did Williams finally select a track list and provide an album title, she also shared a new song, “Parachute.” It’s cacophonous and raging with regret, packing its deepest blows in the second verse. “You were at my wedding … You could’ve told me not to do it,” she shouts. That kind of romantic trauma is a theme throughout the record. Her rough vocal take is filled with hurt; Williams strains her voice as each word turns into a yell. It makes the wail she uncorked on Paramore’s “All I Wanted” pale in comparison. There are plenty of other lovesick melodies on Ego Death, from the Lost in Translation-inspired “Dream Girl in Shibuya” to the Weezer-esque “Disappearing Man.” But “Parachute” sums up the scope of the heartbreak that defines much of the album best, especially as it closes out the LP. It follows the tender “I Won’t Quit on You,” a hopeful moment where Williams promises she won’t give up on her relationship. On “Parachute,” that hope is lost. But even so, with tracks like “Whim” and “Love Me Different,” the singer shows she’s not afraid to open the metal cages to her black-tar heart and show all its boundless love.

Throughout the album, there are similar hints of desired optimism. The sun peaks through the blinds and Williams is desperate to feel its warmth once more as she struggles with her loss. The cover alone is a perfect example of this dichotomy: it’s a black-and-white close-up image of Williams with a yellow square around her face, echoing the aesthetic of the 17 singles. Even on some of the most depressing tracks, like the meditative “Glum” or antidepressant ode “Mirtzapine,” lyrics like “In the wake of your sunshine, I’ve never felt more glum” are pushed up against vibrant beats and clashes of powerful guitar.

At 17 songs, Ego Death might seem bloated. But this album marks the first time Williams has ever owned her work outright, and who can blame her for wanting to make the most of that? (In 2024, the musician’s decades-plus, controversial record contract with Atlantic ended.) This newfound freedom is a revelation for Williams, who calls out the “dumb motherfuckers that I made rich” on the trip-hop-tinged “Ice in My OJ.” Even with the lengthy track list, every song feels purposeful, each its own reflection of the musician’s unique sonic landscape. Williams reaches for all of her influences and sprinkles samples of them onto Ego Death songs. From French alt-rock band Phoenix on “Love Me Different” to post-Weezer jokers the Bloodhound Gang for the chorus of “Discovery Channel,” and even a nod to TLC’s “Waterfalls” in the lyrics of the title track, the album is a kaleidoscope of the music taste Williams has cultivated over the years.

Ego Death is also notably more percussive and louder than the rest of the singer’s solo work. Producer Daniel James worked on Flowers for Vases and returned for Williams’ third LP. With help from Paramore touring musicians Brian Robert Jones and Joey Howard, as well as Lorde producer Jim-E Stack, who has a hand in “True Believer,” every track is propulsive no matter if it’s diving into synth-pop or alt-rock. Gone is the sparse production of Petals or the quiet dissonance of Flowers. Here, the music is alive and banger-ready.

If Williams’ first two LPs saw her dipping her toe into solo work, Ego Death is a full plunge. Never has she sounded more certain or free. There is a kind of death here, one where the musician leaves behind bits of her past self, but more than anything, the album feels like a baptism. Williams emerges from the depths of her focused creation ready for a new life, where the possibilities are endless.

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