Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
The magnificent third solo record from Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams is a chilling, visceral opus, saturated with depression from start to finish.
Following Paramore’s triumphant 2023 comeback with This Is Why, the band weathered a series of transformations: two Grammys, an opening slot on Taylor Swift’s victory-lap The Eras Tour, and, perhaps most importantly, liberation from their long-standing contract with Atlantic Records. By late 2024, however, they had once again slipped into silence, surfacing only sporadically on social media. Fans speculated endlessly about what might come next, but few could have predicted this outcome.
In late July, Williams quietly uploaded a batch of 17 songs to her website, at the time unmoored from any clear context. For weeks she engaged in an almost playful dialogue with listeners, collectively sculpting the eventual tracklist, reposting TikToks, and leaving fans both bewildered and exhilarated. A month later, she revealed Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party — her third solo album and her first full-length as an independent artist.
At its core, Ego Death is Williams’ most ambitious and sprawling body of work, both solo and with Paramore. Yet, remarkably, none of its 18 tracks feel redundant. The first half positions her as a hitmaker still capable of producing seismic rock anthems like “Ice In My OJ” and “Mirtazapine”, or irresistible pop hooks such as “Glum and Whim”. The back half, however, drifts into more fragile, stripped-down terrain reminiscent of her stark 2021 record Flowers for Vases / descansos. Musically, it’s arguably the most eclectic project of her career.
Some of the album recalls 2017’s After Laughter: effervescent melodies that mask lyrical devastation. On “Glum”, Williams dissects isolation and dissociation with devastating candor, while “Hard” comes across as unflinchingly defiant. Midway through, she offers levity with the title track — a sardonic takedown of Morgan Wallen in which she declares herself as “the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar”. It’s a line that lands with conviction; Williams has always radiated enough charisma to eclipse anyone in her orbit, whether commanding a stadium or casually stepping into a dive.
But the heart of Ego Death lies in its intimate reckoning with heartbreak, widely presumed to be her split from longtime bandmate Taylor York. The closing track, “Parachute”, delivers a cathartic climax to a trilogy Williams began with “Crystal Clear on Petals for Armor” and continued on 2023’s “Liar”. Meanwhile, the hushed “I Won’t Quit On You” may be the most devastating song she’s ever written. Williams’ gift has always been her ability to cut straight to the bone: her writing demonstrates that you don’t need elaborate metaphors to capture the entire spectrum of human grief.
Despite an already expansive discography, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party might stand as Williams’ most commanding and multifaceted work yet. Across its hour-long runtime, she navigates the stages of loss while carving space for broader cultural critiques, as on “True Believer”, where she confronts systemic racism and religious hypocrisy with piercing clarity. It’s a daunting challenge to push the boundaries of one’s artistry without collapsing under the weight of ambition — but Williams manages to do so with masterful precision.
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is everything at once: sprawling yet cohesive, raw yet refined, playful yet heart-wrenching. At its center is Williams herself, fearlessly vulnerable and endlessly inventive. This is a towering achievement, one that listeners will return to for years. Hayley Williams has always sung, performed, and written brilliantly — but here, she does it better than ever.
9.0/10
