''Petals for Armor'' is the debut solo studio album by American singer-songwriter

Hayley Williams Hayley Nichole Williams (born December 27, 1988) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, and keyboardist of the rock band Paramore. Born and raised in Missi ...

. It was released on May 8, 2020, by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. The album was preceded by two extended plays (EPs), '' Petals for Armor I'' and '' Petals for Armor II'', which make up the album's first ten songs. Williams explained the inspiration behind the title of the album is due to her belief that "the best way for me to protect myself is to be vulnerable." The album was produced by Williams' Paramore bandmate

Taylor York Taylor Benjamin York (born December 17, 1989) is an American musician who is the guitarist of rock band Paramore. His brother Justin was a touring member of Relient K and was a touring guitarist for Paramore until 2022. Biography York was born ...

and was written throughout 2019 during Paramore's hiatus after touring in support of their fifth studio album, ''

After Laughter ''After Laughter'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Paramore. It was released on May 12, 2017, through Fueled by Ramen, as a follow-up to their self-titled album ''Paramore'' (2013). The album was produced by guitarist Taylor Yor ...

'' (2017). The album was supported by its lead single, "

Simmer Simmering is a food preparation technique by which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept just below the boiling point of water (lower than ) and above poaching temperature (higher than ). To create a steady simmer, a liquid is brought to a boil, ...

", which was released in January 2020, accompanied with its music video. In an interview with

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

, Williams confirmed that she will tour in support of ''Petals for Armor'' following its release.

Background

Following extensive touring in support of

Paramore Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the group, whil ...

's fifth studio album ''

'' (2017),

expressed her feelings about the group's future moving forward explaining that they were not breaking up, however needed time away from writing and touring. In an interview with

, in January 2020, Williams explained her process behind developing the album.

Promotion and release

Singles

In December 2019, Williams announced on her birthday that she would be releasing a "taste" of new solo music in January 2020. Williams revealed the song title on social media on January 20, 2020, after posting various teasers over the course of January which featured a "dark aesthetic", with one including a person running through the woods. On January 22, 2020, Hayley Williams released the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

", the song was written by Williams, Paramore touring musician Joseph Howard, and guitarist

. The album's second single, "Dead Horse", was released on April 21, 2020. "'Dead Horse' offers strength back to a younger, weaker version of myself," Williams continues. "I feel like all of this needed to be said in order to embody the kind of woman I hope to be." The music video was released on May 8. It was directed by

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 bro ...

Promotional singles

Singles for ''Petals for Armor I''

" Leave It Alone" was released on January 30, 2020 by

for digital download and to

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

platforms and serves as the second single for Williams' debut solo EP, '' Petals for Armor I''. The song was written by Williams and Joseph Howard and was produced by

. The music video for "Leave It Alone" was directed by

Warren Fu Warren Fu is an American music video director, illustrator and designer. He has directed videos for artists such as Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, The Strokes, the Killers, Hayley Williams, Mark Ronson, and Julian Casablancas. Fu is signed to ...

and serves as a sequel to its predecessor "

". It premiered on the same day as the single's release. Another music video, "Leave It Alone Interlude", premiered on February 3, 2020. "Cinnamon" was released on February 6, 2020 as a third single from her '' Petals for Armor I'' project along with the EP's release. The music video for "Cinnamon" was directed by

and serves as a sequel to its predecessor "Leave It Alone".

Singles for ''Petals for Armor II''

"Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris" was released on March 19, 2020 with an official lyric video. The song features indie rock band

Boygenius Boygenius (stylized in all lowercase) is an American indie rock Supergroup (music), supergroup formed in 2018 by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. Their self-titled debut EP ''boygenius (EP), boygenius'' was written and recorded at ...

, which consists of Julien Baker,

Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and ''Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclaim ...

, and

Lucy Dacus Lucy Elizabeth Dacus (born May 2, 1995) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dacus attracted attention with her debut album '' No Burden'' (2016), which led to a deal with Matador Records. Her secon ...

, on background vocals. Williams said about the single in her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account. Williams also released the songs "Over Yet", "My Friend" and "Why We Ever".

Canceled Tour

Planned to take place alongside the release of album, on March 5, 2020 Williams announced the European and North American legs of the Petals for Armor Tour, set to start in May 13 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Netherlands and conclude on June 29, 2020 in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

, United States. The pre-sale started on March 13, 2020. It was announced that the support acts would be English R&B artist

Arlo Parks Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho (born 9 August 2000), known professionally as Arlo Parks, is a British singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, ''Collapsed in Sunbeams'', was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and peaked at number thr ...

on the North American leg and Scottish band the Ninth Wave in Europe. However, in August 2020 Williams announced that the tour was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and that there were "no immediate plans to schedule new dates".

Cancelled shows

Critical reception

''Petals for Armor'' was met with critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 83, based on 22 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Aggregator

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...

gave it 8.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Track listing

Notes

*"Crystal Clear" contains music from "Friends or Lovers" by Rusty Williams.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes. Musicians *

– vocals; guitar (tracks: 1, 3, and 4); keyboards (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10–13, and 15); drums (track: 3) * Aaron Steele – drums (tracks: 1–12); programming (track: 1);

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s (tracks: 2, 9, and 11); percussion (tracks: 2 and 9) * Joey Howard – bass (tracks: 1–12, and 15); keyboards (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12); percussion (track: 2); guitar (track: 4); programming (tracks: 5 and 7) *

– additional instrumentation (all tracks) * Daniel James – string arrangements (tracks: 2 and 9) * Benjamin Kaufman – violin (tracks: 2 and 9); chin cello (tracks: 2 and 9) * Steph Marziano – keyboards (tracks: 4 and 8); programming (tracks: 4 and 8) * Mike Weiss – guitar (track: 4) * Julien Baker – background vocals (track: 9) *

– background vocals (track: 9) *

- drums (tracks: 14 and 15) * Brian Robert Jones – bass (track: 14) * Rusty Williams – vocals (track: 15); piano (track: 15) ;Producers and engineers * Taylor York – production *

Carlos de la Garza Captain Carlos de la Garza (1807–1882), also known as "Don Carlos," was a fourth generation Tejano rancher and entrepreneur in Goliad, Victoria and Refugio counties of Texas. His participation in the Mexican Army leading to the Battle of Coleto ...

– mixing, engineering, additional production (tracks: 8, 11, 12, 14, and 15) *

Dave Cooley Dave Cooley (David J. Cooley; born 1970) is an American mastering engineer and audio restoration specialist. His numerous mastering credits include J Dilla's ''Donuts'' and '' The Diary'', Paramore's ''After Laughter'', 40th anniversary release ...

– mastering * Michael Craver – mixing assistance, studio assistance * David Fitzgibbons – mixing assistance, studio assistance * Kevin Boettger – studio assistance * Michelle Freetly – studio assistance * Jake Butler – studio assistance * Steph Marziano – additional production (tracks: 4 and 8) * Daniel James – additional production (tracks: 4–6, 8, 9, and 14) * Joey Howard – additional production (track: 7) * Micah Tawlks – additional production (track: 10); engineering (track: 10) Artwork * Lindsey Byrnes – creative direction, photography * Alex Mata – design, layout

Charts

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2020 debut albums Hayley Williams albums Albums produced by Taylor York Atlantic Records albums Art pop albums Experimental pop albums Indie pop albums by American artists Synth-pop albums by American artists

Background

Promotion and release

Singles

Promotional singles

Singles for ''Petals for Armor I''

Singles for ''Petals for Armor II''

Canceled Tour

Cancelled shows

Critical reception

Track listing

Notes

Credits and personnel

Charts

See also

Notes

References