Paramore - Tell Me It’s Okay

When bands announce they’re repackaging a year old album, usually it’s safe to set it aside as a cynical marketing ploy and move on. More often than not, that extra demo they’ve stuck on the end will be a ropey half thought - the kind of thing put down after a lunch break and tossed aside, never in danger of troubling the finished thing.

And then, not for the first time in recent memory, there’s Paramore.

Obviously, for them a demo is what for any other band would be a fully realised smash hit single. The kind of track that full sets build up to, caterwauling like an air raid siren of awesome sugar rush power pop.

“Tell me it’s okay to be happy now, because I’m happy now,” the refrain thumps, all misery business firmly out of the window. None of that downbeat nonsense for Paramore 2.0. For the last eighteen months, they’ve been hitting every ball right out of the park, from their already perfect self-titled fourth full length to the ‘screw you, we’re taking the mainstream and we’re doing it our way’ attitude they’ve worn on the way.

Because, if there’s been one thing that’s been refreshing about Paramore’s latest run, it’s that side order of sass. The affirmation that actually, it’s good to be upbeat. Things get better, cynicism sucks. Here, they’re not just adding something to make up the numbers, but crystallising the whole damn point down to one well deserved 100 mile an hour victory lap. It’s more than okay, it’s freaking brilliant.

The deluxe version of Paramore’s self-titled album is out now.