Hayley Williams - Flowers For Vases / Descansos

by Zena Grieg

published: 5 / 5 / 2021

Hayley Williams - Flowers For Vases / Descansos

Label: Atlantic Records
Format: Download

Introspective and sparse second solo album from Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams

Review

Nine months after her excellent debut album ‘Petals For Armor’, Hayley Williams has released ‘Flowers for Vases/Descansos’. This new collection she said was partly inspired by Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’. “This isn’t really a follow-up to ‘Petals For Armor’. If anything, it’s a prequel or some sort of detour between parts one and two of Petals.”.The solo record, produced by Daniel James, written and performed entirely by Williams and recorded in her home studio in Nashville, had a low-key release with Williams hand-delivering a few CDs to local fans. ‘Descansos’ is the Spanish word for crosses placed on highways at places where a person’s life was ended or changed forever. The title was inspired by ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’ in which Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes encourages readers to mark pivotal moments in their life with these symbolic crosses, acknowledging their formative influence. This new album, sparse, stripped-back, stands in direct contrast to ‘Petals for Armor’. Introspective, the tracks resonating like a series of lyrical diary entries, ‘Flowers…’ is centred around the visceral feelings of loss, grief and heartache following the break-down of Williams’s decade-long relationship and marriage to Chad Gilbert. Subtle, muted, the album still paints an impressive musical palette – from the delicate electronics on ‘Asystole’ to an effective combination of piano, guitar and multi-tracked vocals on the opener ‘First Thing To Go’. Highlights include: the self-deprecating ‘Over Those Hills’ – “Almost went numb/Thought I’d had enough/But the hurt is half the fun”; the quiet, resigned ‘Good Grief’ with its poignant lyrics: “There’s no such thing as good grief/….One more time, play me something. I won’t sing/I’ll be quiet, play me something/One more time, I’m listening”; the moving ‘KYRH’ with minimalist piano and cello; the ethereal, haunting ‘No Use I Just Do’; and the closer, ‘Just a Lover’, a layered piano ballad, its instrumentation building in intensity to its defiant climax: “In the morning, I feel my heart crack open, one last chorus/I’ll be singing into empty glasses/No more music for the masses/One more hour, one more ugly still-born cry/I know exactly what this is/Or whatever it was, or whatever it was.” Hypnotic, emotive, imprinted by an unrelenting candour, ‘Flowers For Vaes/Descansos’ is an album that showcases Williams’ exceptional musical range and lyrical ability, leaving the listener impatient for her next.

Track Listing:-

1 First Thing To Go
2 My Limb
3 Asystole
4 Trigger
5 Over Those Hills
6 Good Grief
7 Wait On
8 KYRH
9 Inordinary
10 HYD
11 No Use I Just Do
12 Find Me Here
13 Descansos
14 Just A Lover