''Brand New Eyes'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the third studio album by the American rock band Paramore, released on September 29, 2009, through Fueled by Ramen in the United States and Canada. The album was produced by Rob Cavallo and recorded in Hidden Hills, California, from January to March 2009. It was written by band members Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, with guitarist Taylor York who co-wrote on four tracks, as a follow-up to '' Riot!'' (2007). Praised by critics for its songwriting and the band's increased maturity, the album won Best Album at the ''Kerrang!'' Awards 2010, and " The Only Exception" received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Several publications included ''Brand New Eyes'' in their year-end lists. The album produced five singles: " Ignorance", " Brick by Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", " Careful", and " Playing God", all of which have been commercially successful in the United States and internationally. ''Brand New Eyes'' debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200 selling 175,000 copies in its first week, becoming their biggest album on that chart, until their self-titled album debuted at number one in 2013. The album topped the charts in many countries across the world including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, making it the band's second-highest charting album to date. The album was certified platinum in the United States by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA), the United Kingdom by the

British Phonographic Industry BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited, trading as British Phonographic Industry (BPI), is the British recorded music industry's trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards; is home to the Mercury Prize; co-owns the Official Charts C ...

(BPI), and Australia by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA). It was also certified gold in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. The band promoted the album with the Brand New Eyes World Tour, playing shows in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, etc., as well as with festival appearances. ''Brand New Eyes'' was the final album recorded by Paramore before Josh and

Zac Farro Zachary Wayne Farro (born June 4, 1990) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Paramore. He is the younger brother of Josh Farro, who is Paramore's former lead guitarist and backing vocalist. After he and his broth ...

departed the band in 2010. Zac Farro would later rejoin in 2017.

Background and production

After the release of '' Riot!'' (2007), a blog post in early 2008 was posted stating that Paramore were having "internal issues." Coupled with a week of cancelled shows, speculation arose that the band was going to break up. Not long after, it was resolved and claimed to be an issue of the members never having time to talk about things such as how they "were all growing up, and sometimes, when you're growing up, you're not always growing together". Further struggles to write new material had singer Hayley Williams expressing doubts about songwriting and meeting the expectations placed on the band after the success of ''Riot!''. In September 2008, Williams revealed that the band might release their next album in summer 2009. On November 18, 2008, the band announced they were writing their next album, again mentioning that it might be out in summer 2009. Paramore spent six weeks in pre-production at Emac Studios in their hometown of Franklin, the first time they had undergone pre-production without the guidance of a producer. A visit from record producer Rob Cavallo reassured the band that they were on the right track. "The album totally rocks," Cavallo said, "yet it's also very subtle." The band subsequently felt that the album and their new material had the potential to surpass the success of their previous work. Although it was originally planned to record the album close to home in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, the band commenced recording in

Calabasas, California Calabasas (, ; Spanish language in California, Spanish for "winter squash, squashes") is a city in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. They then added to the original material written at home with additional tunes written with the help of Cavallo after the move to Calabasas. Similar to most rock records, the band mostly tracked the drums first, followed by the rest of the members recording scratch tracks that they later overdubbed. Paramore finished production by May 2009.

Composition

The album's sound has been described as

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

pop-punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

emo pop Emo pop (alternatively typeset with a hyphen, also known as emo pop-punk and pop-emo) is a fusion genre combining emo with pop-punk, pop music, or both. Emo pop features a musical style with more concise composition and Hook (music), hook-filled ...

, and emo. Williams was concerned about lyrics that involved current issues, as opposed to resolved issues that she had written about in the past. "I was like, 'This isn't a feel-good song, because I'm writing about something I'm going through right now, and it's still painful,'" she continued. "And I confused that with actually not liking the songs, when actually I was prouder of them than I've ever been before. They're heavier emotions for me... I'm still going through some of this stuff, and these songs are really healing to me." The band as a whole treated the writing as a therapeutic experience, which helped them hash out old differences. Now that "all those words were out on the table", they were able to have their first real conversations in a long time, resolving the internal struggles they had been facing, by going back to the reasons why they started the band and had wanted to play music in the first place. Consequently, Paramore decided to name the record ''Brand New Eyes'' because of the allusion to seeing things from a whole new perspective, "Just trying to let go of whatever we might have struggled with the past and just see each other in a new way," explained Williams. The band soon felt that they were onto the right track, and, retrospectively looking back on '' Riot!'', Paramore guitarist, Josh Farro, said "Riot! was a kiddie album, but we had to do that to get to this point."

Promotion and release

On April 29, 2009, it was revealed that the band's next album would be released in September. The first single from the album was " Ignorance", which was made available via digital download on July 7, on the same date the album became available for pre-order on Paramore's official website. ''Brand New Eyes'' was released on September 29 through Fueled by Ramen. The album's cover, an image of a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

divided from its wings, inspired the line "The angles were all wrong / Now she's ripping wings off of butterflies". Two versions of the album were made available: a standard CD edition as well as a deluxe, limited edition package that has sold out worldwide. The deluxe version included the album on CD with the acoustic versions of Where The Lines Overlap and Ignorance, a 40-page hardcover journal written by Hayley Williams, an exclusive poster that comes with only the box set, a booklet with the lyrics from all the songs from Brand New Eyes, a color vinyl 7-inch single with the acoustic versions of Ignorance and Where The Lines Overlap, one picture of each band member, a certificate of authenticity, and a DVD featuring a 30 minute long exclusive 'making-of' documentary. The CD was also one of the first to use iTunes LP. " Brick by Boring Brick" was confirmed to be the second single from the album, released in November 2009. In December, the group went on a headlining UK tour with support from You Me at Six. In November 2010, the group went on a headlining UK tour. The fifth single from the album, " Playing God", was released on the November 16. To assist with promotion of the single, a music video for "Playing God", was also released. The album was released in high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) on HDtracks.com in 2012. The high res version has a greater dynamic range than the CD release. In January 2015 another deluxe edition of the album was released in high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) on the US store of the British company 7digital: this edition includes the acoustic version of Ignorance (also featured on the physical 2009 deluxed edition mentioned above) and two new, previously unreleased, acoustic versions of Brick by Boring Brick and Turn It Off (both later included in the iTunes deluxe edition bundle).

Critical reception

According to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, ''Brand New Eyes'' holds a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 18 reviews through October 1, 2009. AbsolutePunk.net writer Julia Conny scored the album at 82% and praised frontwoman Hayley Williams, "Simultaneously down-to-earth and on top of the world, there is something about this Williams character that makes an album like ''Brand New Eyes'' more than another notch on that bitchy pop-rock bedpost. Just imagine what will happen when the band hits their mid-twenties." Andrew Leahey of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album a positive review, stating, ''Brand New Eyes'' presents Paramore as a stronger, leaner, and altogether more consistent band." Evan Lucy of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' also wrote a favorable review, saying, "Although the new set may lack the wide-eyed naiveté that made the group's past efforts so endearing, the newfound maturity makes for a compelling set of songs." '' Big Cheese'' magazine awarded a maximum five star rating and Cathy Reay wrote, "''Brand New Eyes'' is a huge milestone for an intelligent, honest young band that deserve far more mainstream recognition than they get." ''

Alternative Press Alternative press may refer to: Individual publications * ''Alternative Press'' (magazine), an American music magazine Alternative journalism * Alternative media ** Alternative media (U.S. political left) ** Alternative media (U.S. political r ...

'' awarded the album 4.5 out of 5 and Scott Heisel praised the improvement of the album over its predecessor; "''Riot!'' was ridiculously top-loaded, with an unmemorable second half. ''Eyes'' astonishes from start to finish, with the bouncy and confessional "Looking Up" and the immensely powerful track "All I Wanted" showing up as diamonds in an already gem-covered rough". Sarah Bee, journalist for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

gave a largely favorable review and summarized, "If you didn't like Paramore before, their third album is unlikely to sway you. They make the kind of forceful, commercial emo-pop that music lovers love to hate. However, as forceful, commercial emo-pop goes – and it does – ''Brand New Eyes'' is very good. It is brash and gauche, but charming." ''

Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more " underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, ...

'' however, went on to laud the slower efforts. "The album's big surprise comes in the form of the stripped-down closing tracks 'Misguided Ghosts' and 'All I Wanted', which see the fragility of Hayley's vocals laid against sparse instrumentation with truly immaculate results." Reviewer Faye Lewis went on to summarize, "Paramore are a young band growing up in the public glare, and although that would send many to the funny farm, it's made this quintet even stronger and ''Brand New Eyes'' is by far their best record yet". Jon Dolan of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' scored the album at three stars out of five. Much like Leonie Cooper of ''NME'', he was critical of slower moments: "But some of the sweeping moments blunt the band's fresh-faced immediacy — as if the cute kids from the sticks have had a hard time turning pro." '' Spin'' magazine awarded four stars out of five in their review and complimented the band for standing out in a generic genre. "Paramore's follow-up, ''Brand New Eyes'', which, at a moment of wet-and-wild Warped Tour cynicism (see Cobra Starship and 3OH!3), offers a principled reminder of a more earnest, honest age." Drowned In Sound awarded the album eight out of ten and while writer Paul Stephen Gettings stated the record isn't "pushing any boundaries", he praised its longevity: " ..if you're already a critic, this isn't going to convince you otherwise. This is a realization, and an affirmation, of Paramore's musical craftmanship and potential longevity. They have allowed themselves to grow and still retain the innocence and optimism that makes them so irresistible." ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

'' reviewer Dan Slessor gave the album 4 Ks (4/5) and claimed, "...in ''Brand New Eyes'' they have arguably delivered the most accomplished and affecting record of their career." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' were also favorable in their review. Although being critical of the album's slower moments, Leonie Cooper praised the record as a whole; "Sure, the two slower tracks might make for a break in the relentless pace, but who needs the rest? If you just so happen to be one of the best in the up-tempo pop-smattered emo-punk game, why bother slowing down? For this lot, more is most certainly more."

Accolades

Commercial performance

Commercially, ''Brand New Eyes'' was a major success. In the United States, the album debuted at number two on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 175,000 copies. The following week the album slipped to number nine, selling an additional 44,000 copies. The album stayed on the main album chart for 32 weeks. In addition to the Billboard 200, the album managed to peak at number one on the Billboard Rock and Alternative Albums charts. On January 19, 2010, less than six months after the album was released, ''Brand New Eyes'' was certified gold by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

for shipments of 500,000 albums and platinum on March 22, 2016 for shipments of 1,000,000 albums. * The tracks "Ignorance", "Brick by Boring Brick" and "Where the Lines Overlap" also made the Pazz & Jop Singles List.

Tour

Paramore went on tour with No Doubt between mid-May and early August 2009. The band announced their North American tour for ''Brand New Eyes'' on their official site, with the Swellers and Paper Route joining them as opening acts. The first show of the tour was played at a packed Fox Theatre in

Pomona, California Pomona ( ) is a city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population was ...

, on September 29, 2009 (the day of the album's release). During " Decode", Williams lost her voice. Lead guitarist Josh Farro spoke to the crowd and although their set was cut short, the band played "Misery Business" instrumentally while the crowd sang Williams's vocal parts. The tour, which previously went from September 29 to November 1, 2009, was later officially postponed on October 2, 2009, due to a case of laryngitis for singer Williams. The full tour resumed on October 10, 2009, in Chicago. The band also announced that they would be doing a European tour starting off in Helsinki, Finland, on November 29, 2009, with You Me at Six, Paper Route, and Now, Now Every Children supporting all UK tour dates. They performed in February 2010 in the Australian Soundwave Festival, along with bands such as You Me at Six, Taking Back Sunday,

All Time Low All Time Low is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Towson, Maryland, in 2003. Consisting of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alex Gaskarth, lead guitarist Jack Barakat, bassist/backing vocalist Zack Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson ...

and Alexisonfire. They performed at the Soundwave Festival before they did the Brand New Eyes Tour in Australia. Then in the first week of March they performed two concerts in New Zealand, one to a sell out crowd of 5,000 in Auckland and the other in Christchurch. In July, August and September 2010, the band announced a tour in the Honda Civic Tour 2010. In May 2010, the band had a short UK tour for November 2010. After just one day of being on sale they added a second date at the O2 arena due to huge demand for tickets. They later added 2 extra dates to take it up to 8 concerts instead of the original 5. In June 2010, the band announced a short Australia Tour for October. In November 2010, the band announced a short in South American Tour for February and March 2011, and the band announced a short in American tour for December. In July 2011, the band had a short Europe tour.

Track listing

Limited edition bonus DVD

# "Making the Album" documentary – 30:00 # In-studio footage # Interviews # Paramore.net episodes: #* (Cocky) Basketball #* Ping Pong #* Cribz, Part 1 #* Cribz, Part 2 #* Zac and Kevin #* Z and T Presents "Baby Come Back 2 Me" # Photo gallery (exclusive in-studio)

Personnel

Paramore * Hayley Williams – lead vocals * Josh Farro – guitar, backing vocals * Taylor York – guitar * Jeremy Davis – bass *

– drums ;Additional musicians * Jamie Muhoberac – keyboards, organ Management * Mark Mercado & Dave Steunebrink – Management * Jason Chidress – Business Management for Curo Financial Management * Danny Hayes – Legal for Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes, LLP * Ken Fermaglich & David Galea – Booking Agents for The Agency Group * Steve Robertson – A&R * Anne DeClemente – A&R Administration * Katie Robinson – Marketing Director Artwork * Kistie Borgmann & Sarah Deane – Art Coordinators * Ryan Russell & Paramore – Art Direction & Design * Ryan Russell – Photography * Brian Ranney – Packing Production Production * Rob Cavallo – Producer * Doug McKean –

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, mixing on "Misguided Ghosts" * Dan Chase, Lars Fox – Pro Tools engineers * Chris Lord-Alge – Mixing * Keith Armstrong, Nik Karpen – Assisted mixing * Brad Townsend – Additional engineering * Nate Warshowsky – Drum tech * Riley Emminger – Guitar tech * Cheryl Jenets – Production manager * Jaime Neely – Production assistant *

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

– Mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

''Brand New Eyes''
at

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(streamed copy where licensed) * * * {{Authority control 2009 albums Paramore albums Albums produced by Rob Cavallo Fueled by Ramen albums