Hayley Williams - FLOWERS for VASES / descansos (Album Review)
Thursday, 11 February 2021
Written by Emma Wilkes
The second solo outing from Hayley Williams feels like it almost wasn’t made for an audience. Throughout ‘FLOWERS for VASES / descansos’ there is the sense that we have been invited to eavesdrop on a private reckoning: here Williams is combing through her past out loud while setting it to a soft, yet rarely sparse, soundtrack.
The album was written and performed entirely by the Paramore vocalist and, for the most part, is shaped around piano and acoustic guitar. That palette narrows the scope of what she is able to do compared to last year’s synth-heavy ‘Petals for Armor’, but on the flipside it also prevents her from slamming into the sort of screeching left turns that made the latter stages of that record somewhat inconsistent.
It might be more measured than its predecessor, but ‘FLOWERS for VASES / descansos’ is hardly a bore. The acoustic Asystole and the heart-stopping interlude-of-sorts KYRH are masterclasses in balladry performed with a level of delicacy and candour that Williams could make her trademark.
Inordinary is equally good, serving almost as the audiobook of an autobiography Williams hasn’t written yet. Tellingly, it manages to be instantly memorable after one listen.
Given Williams’ past exploits in shapeshifting—pop-punk upstart to emo icon and synth-pop hitmaker—it might be easy to see the ballad-centric nature of ‘FLOWERS for VASES /descansos’ as a fault. But, true to form, Williams squeezes a surprising amount of variety out of this recipe.
The moody alt-pop of My Limb is perhaps the best ‘Petals for Armor’ B-side we never heard, if we can forgive an overly repetitive chorus. Elsewhere, Over Those Hills dabbles with country and rock sensibilities, complete with a great burst of electric guitar that it would have been nice to hear elsewhere. Cannily, Williams saves the best for last in the form of the quietly epic Just a Lover. The song represents a grander finale than the album demanded, but it remains the gorgeous ending it deserved.
There is a blend of intimacy and simplicity, but also great assuredness, to ‘FLOWERS for VASES / descansos’ that makes it the kind of high quality record we have grown to expect from Williams. This might be one case where the sequel, or as she described it, the prequel, is better than the original.
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