Hayley Williams – “Cinnamon,” “Creepin’,” & “Sudden Desire”
We now have half an album’s worth of Hayley Williams solo music. The Paramore leader announced her debut album Petals For Armor last month, and she’s already shared the enormously promising early tracks “Simmer” and “Leave It Alone.” (She’s also covered Dua Lipa in the BBC Live Lounge.) And today, Williams has shared three more brand-new solo tracks, collecting all five tracks together on a pre-album EP called Petals For Armor I.
The three new songs — “Cinnamon,” “Creepin’,” and “Sudden Desire” — all showcase Williams’ intense, communicative voice, just as her work with Paramore did, but they all move her in the direction of skittery and personal pop music. Williams’ Paramore bandmate Taylor York produced all five songs, and he co-wrote the new one “Cinnamon” with Williams. That song has a horror-movie video, directed by Warren Fu, that picks up on the loose narrative from the “Simmer” video and also seems inspired by the final scene of the film Annihilation. Check it out below.
And Williams has also shared two other new ones. She co-wrote both “Creepin'” and “Sudden Desire” with Paramore touring member Joey Howard, and pro songwriter Steph Marziano also helped out on “Creepin’.” Check out both of those tracks below.
Meanwhile, Warren Fu has also directed two short, dreamlike interstitial interludes that are supposed to hold together the “Simmer” and “Cinnamon” videos. Here they are:
Petals For Armor is out 5/8 on Atlantic.