Hayley Williams - "Ego" (Singles Review)

Hayley Williams - "Ego" Singles
Released: August 1, 2025

Hayley Williams has always been one of those people to go against the grain and to not care what people think. Starting out as a little punk teenager with big dreams and an even bigger voice, Paramore was formed when she was only 16 years old and from a very young age, Hayley has faced criticism and always seemed to take it in her stride or rise above it all. It feels like this collection of releases is another one of those moments.

Where most people would put together an album and put it out to the world, with all the teasers that go along with it, an album announcement date etc — that is where Hayley did the complete opposite. Launching just one single, 'Martazipine' on a single US radio station, and that was it. Fans knew that something was coming but that was all they knew... nobody could expect what came next.

Let me catch you up to date.

About a week ago, Hayley and her hair dye brand, Good Dye Young, released a shade entitled “Ego” and this specific shade was extremely limited edition, as well as signed by founders Hayley Williams and Brian O’Connor (Hayley’s hairdresser and makeup artist). Inside the email - which you received after purchasing the shade - was a VERY cryptic code — and I’m not kidding here, it was almost like binary code. This then became the password to enter a website that Hayley and her team had set up to emulate what an old PC would look like, back in the MySpace days, and the audio files were exactly that, on the lower quality, MP3/Wav files that were usually found when listening to songs on MySpace.

However, 48 hours later, the website was no longer able to be accessed and no one knew whether these 17 tracks would be heard ever again unless you were lucky enough to listen to them all on the nostalgic website. It felt like a bit of a secret that only the biggest Paramore fans were in on, and sadly, I didn’t get a chance to hear them all before the website was closed... So a few days later, all 17 tracks were released as individual SINGLES, to streaming platforms, it was relieving to know that everyone could finally listen to them all.

Now the unique thing with this release, which for the sake of this review, I will be referring to as “Ego” since they are all 17 standalone singles that coincided with the launch of the hair dye shade, is that there is absolutely no track list, no order in which you are supposed to listen to each song. So every listener will have a different listening experience and emotional rollercoaster experience based on which order they placed their tracks. It feels like there is something quite special about this, because Hayley always has a way with words that makes you feel something and never really fails to make an emotional connection with the listener. Due to this, I’m going to review Ego in the order that they have been added in my Spotify playlist that I created.  

'Blood Bros' is very reminiscent of the era of Petals for Armour and 'Flowers for Vases' / 'Descansos' in the way that it is very peaceful, very slow, almost lullaby-like. There isn’t much outside of just an acoustic guitar and Hayley’s voice guiding you through the emotions that she is feeling which feels quite sad, distant almost. It feels like there’s an uncertainty of whether someone would come back for her, even though there is a really strong bond, but an uncertainty if it was enough of a bond — with an ending sentence saying “I will love you forever if that won’t make it worse” which is enough to give anyone second hand heartbreak with a line like that. It is a hard pill to swallow with powerful lyrics such as this because while they were very private about it, it was well known to Paramore fans that Hayley was dating Taylor York, and don’t get me wrong, people write songs based on their past all the time, but this one seems a little… too raw to be about a past relationship.  

'Brotherly Hate' is next and no matter how many times I have listened to this — every single time, even after reading the lyrics to be sure — I have this deep core belief this is about the Farro Brothers and their level of dislike for each other. This has been publicly spoken about previously (but not much) so I won’t comment further, but the lyrics just line up too perfectly with the chain of events that went down over the years. However, the rhythm of this one is incredible. It has a bit more of a funky undertone with a bass line that absolutely shines through and gives this track such a personality, it’s almost like you can visualise the lyrics as a conversation and really understand the level of frustration that is being felt by Hayley at this situation, always needing to be the strong one for everyone and play the middle man for too long. This feels like it is something that has been building up and being bottled in for far too long. The little yells in the background really add an extra layer of depth and there is really no question about the emotion that is fuelling this song and for the first time, it seems like Hayley is really starting to get back to the roots of not caring what people think and needing an outlet to just vent and scream into a bit of a void. It makes me wonder how long ago this may have been written and was anyone supposed to hear it until now? But what has changed?

'Glum' is another one of my favourites, and it is really showing the complete vulnerability that Hayley is putting forward in all of these singles, dressing up some of the most depressing lyrics you will ever hear in such a gorgeous little package. It seems that by playing around with a vocaliser and slightly changing the pitch, parts of particular tracks sound as though it isn’t even being sung by Hayley, transforming her voice to seem so different but familiar enough to know that it is still her. I find it so refreshing to see that in all of these singles that are being released there is some element of experimentation to go along with it. While it may not always be a lot, there’s definitely hints of it scattered throughout each different song, with this being one of the most prominent. The guitar is very present but compliments Hayley's vocals, and the bass line is very very slight, but it still has it’s place to carry the rhythm in a similar vein to the guitar, being very complimentary to Williams vocal work without over shadowing it.

One thing that I have really noticed is that most of these singles don’t have much in the way of instruments it seems, almost as if these were never meant to be big flashy songs, but just a little musical session between friends that got recorded and put into a song for just a creative outlet that wasn’t ever really going to be released. This feeling tracks along with how I have been noticing that a lot of the lyrics are full of hurt, heartbreak and anger, and while it is not uncommon for Hayley to write about these things (and release it) — it just feels very different this time. It definitely feels more raw, vulnerable and almost as though they’re snippets of things you’d put in a diary and have no one read, or a song you record just to get it out of your system.

'Hard' has honestly got to be the S-tier song that was released in my opinion. This is a true 90’s/early 2000’s punk nostalgic track. This would have been on peoples MySpace pages back in the day and is another that screams personality through sound. I can hear the attitude and the almost apathy that comes with it, the grunge tones are just stellar, giving off teen punk band in the garage vibes, and the lyrics are almost exact sentences you’d say to someone if you just didn’t give a fuck at all such as the lines that are displayed in the entire chorus. While the guitar sound really hits that punk reverb sound playing throughout, I find it adds a layer to this that makes it feel much more nostalgic and something people don’t really utilise much anymore. Now here’s where things in the song get a little bit interesting and we get shown yet another layer of vulnerability, as the second verse says “I got married once in combat boots and only listened to testosterone music, I had to kill my feminine just to do it, to get to you I had to go through it”. This is most definitely referring to having to go through her marriage, and divorce with Chad Gilbert before she began dating Taylor York. But for the majority of this song, it tells the tale of how Hayley is very protective of her heart and that she’s always just a little bit on edge, waiting for something to go wrong, which is extremely relatable.

I think not only do I find this song to be the strongest of the singles, but I personally find it the most relatable. I feel like a lot of songs are made with the idea of being relatable, but they just don’t hit the way they are meant to which makes me that much more excited that this one does hit those exact feelings.

'Ice In My OJ' is an interesting one, I’ve been listening to it for a week now and I still don’t really know how I feel about it. The bass line that is very prominent as well as the rhythm of the song as a whole, I feel like I really love it, and I can tell this is another song where it is just venting into the void and a bit of a badass move, and who knows how long Hayley has been sitting with these feelings, so it is hard to understand when this was written, but there are parts of this song that I don’t like, such as the chorus which I feel like while the words are necessary, it does just say “I’m in a band” repeatedly, which I understand would be in reference to the many years that people would say “Hayley Williams of Paramore” and discredit all the other members who were actually IN the band and she would continually need to tell people “I’m in a band”. On the flip side of this though we have a line that says “I’ve got ice in my OJ, I’m a cold hard bitch. Got a lot of dumb mother fuckers that I made rich, I might go back to Mississippi, careful I don’t take you with me”. Which given the themes of some of these tracks that have been released, does give a bit of concern about the future of Paramore, which I will go into shortly. 

The next song I really want to highlight is 'Negative Self Talk'. This one is painful. We’re back to the soft, Petals for Armour, Flowers for Vases vibes with this beautiful, soft, calming guitar and drum beats, a very feint bass line that compliments all the other instrumentals without any one of them ever being overpowering or taking away from the lyrical content - which is heavy. There is no doubt in my mind once hearing this, that there is a fresh, raw, break up that has happened. Hayley and Taylor are definitely not together anymore, which makes the other songs that have themes of heartbreak add up that much more. The powerfully sad words “Home is where we were loud, used to sing down the hall to your signature sound, now its just so quiet, I hate this gorgeous house” are sung. This feels like stabbing a knife into the heart, twisting it and pulling it back out again. As previously mentioned, Hayley really has a way of making the listener feel something and connecting on such a deep emotional level and it feels as though that is exactly what has been achieved here. Anyone who has gone through a break up, past or present, knows just how it feels when everything is quiet and you’re alone again. This song is the most painful and accurate description of how it feels. 

I previously said that there was some concern about the future of Paramore, and I do genuinely feel that way. With Hayley and Taylor no longer together, Zac having both his own band, and his own solo project and Hayley having her solo project, there is also another piece of the puzzle that plays into this.

For each single that was released, Hayley wrote credits for who designed the artworks, played which instruments and who produced each single. None of the credits included Zac or Taylor which is extremely unusual because in both of Hayley’s previous solo releases, the trio have still teamed up, usually Zac on drums, Taylor on guitar and production/mixing, but no, not this time. By no means am I saying Hayley must only work with the members of Paramore, but it is very weird that she worked with Joey Howard and Brian Robert Jones (both additional members of Paramore) but not the two main members — as well as the fact that while promoting the All We Know Is Falling Deluxe Anniversary album, Taylor was nowhere to be seen.

I don’t know what will happen next but I am grateful to have at least a taste of whatever music Hayley has been working on. This release did feel incredibly raw and personal so it does feel like somewhat of a privilege to be able to get to hear these tracks and have them be released. It has definitely kept me curious to know more and hear whatever else may be on the way, if anything at all. While there are some singles that really weren’t my style, there are some that entirely connected with me, but the way things are produced and the freedom that Williams felt to be able to experiment kept me intrigued and wanting to hear more of what she has to offer, even if it does hurt the heart just a little bit.

Rating: 7/10
"Ego" (singles collection) is out now. Stream them here
Words by Heather McNab @heathermcnab

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