Flowers For Vases/Descansos
| Hayley Williams
Flowers For Vases/Descansos
Flowers for Vases / Descansos (stylized as FLOWERS for VASES / descansos) is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter and Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams. It was released without prior announcement through Atlantic Records on February 5, 2021, nine months after its predecessor Petals for Armor (2020), and two months after the extended play Petals for Armor: Self-Serenades (2020). Departing from the art pop sound of the singer's previous material, Flowers for Vases is an intimate folkalbum with sparse guitars, piano chords and spare drums. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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NME
Recorded alone in lockdown, the Paramore vocalist's exposed new album sees her trade the biting rage of her previous release for a more meditative sound.
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Sputnik Music
It helps that FLOWERS for VASES / descansos is inviting and compelling even in its quietude. What a pleasure to have a songwriter and singer of this calibre making albums like this, with seemingly limitless texture to dig into and infinite potential meaning for every listener. Just so long as they give it the time.
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The Soundboard Reviews
She really is nailing the aspect of this sort of singer-songwriter that resonates so heavily, and while that’s not all that surprising, going off the beaten path with FLOWERS for VASES… and largely sticking the landing shows an approach that’s unquestionably paying off.
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The Appalachian
Williams created an emotionally reminiscent album filled with music for reflecting on memories, good and bad. With five studio albums from Paramore and a No. 1 debut solo album, this is Williams’ most honest and chilling work yet.
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The Young Folks
Even at its best, when it’s throwing heart-breaking lines at you, it can’t wrap up the feelings in a nice enough way to gain anything from it. Williams’ sophomore attempt is a disappointing, hollow representation of more established and more recently successful solo artists.
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Stars and Scars
Being a solo artist can be a daunting task, especially when seeking to maintain one’s momentum. For Hayley Williams, she’s managed to sustain that momentum with the more intimate yet equally alluring FLOWERS for VASES / descansos. While the future for many musicians is quite uncertain, with records such as Flowers, Williams has proven her own artistic future is full of promise and opportunity. To paraphrase the artist herself, it’s more than gratifying to watch her bloom.
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GSGM
This new record, which contains 14 thought-provoking compositions, is the ecstatic gem that our team has wanted without even recognising it. ‘First Thing To Do’ is the first song in the compilation. Hayley immediately demonstrates her prowess by softly pulling us up and takes us on an incredible journey with her beautiful voice tones.
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Dead Press
‘Flowers For Vases / Descansos’ is as a much darker, more vulnerable affair. Baring all about her divorce, and the subsequent, conjured feelings of loneliness, isolation, and bewilderment, makes for a delicate, profound experience, while also operating as an enlightening companion piece/extension to this sonic, floral tapestry which Hayley Williams continues to weave.
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All Music
Even in the darkest moments on Flowers for Vases/descansos, Williams reaches out and beckons you ever closer.
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Ottawa Life
The hovering strings, sound clips and watery piano of "Descansos" make for an eerie listen, with Williams almost coming across as a ghostly presence in the recording.
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The Needle Drop
Hayley Williams has transposed the derivativeness of her debut album to an indie folk context.
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Spectrum Culture
An inconsistent album that soars when operating on either end of a spectrum that ranges from bedroom folk songs to intensely cinematic pieces.
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Kerrang!
FLOWERS for VASES / descansos continues what Petals For Armor started in showing just how much of Hayley Williams we still have to get to know as an artist. The Paramore question mark continues to hover, but here Hayley has once again shown that there’s more to her than one band.
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Gigwise
A glorious testament to Williams' songwriting.
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Redbrick Music
In times of stress, internal or external, Hayley Williams has given us a breath of fresh air. FLOWERS for VASES / descansos is a moving, yet calming, escape from the trials and tribulations of life right now.
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AV Club
It’s the work of someone rightfully scared of major change, but still willing to do the emotional work needed in order to face it head-on.
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The Line of Best Fit
Hayley Williams’ emotional purge continues into delicate, and often haunting, acoustic terrain.
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Clash Magazine
In 'FLOWERS for VASES / descansos' Williams belts the stapled vocal range she’s praised for in notable tracks, ‘All I Wanted,’ ‘Feeling Sorry,’ and ‘Ain’t It Fun,’ and completes it with comforting acoustics, simplistic key work and alluring songwriting.
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Wall of Sound
The beauty that is this album makes me so happy and I truly have been listening to it on repeat in my car in the mornings and at night both driving to work and home from work.
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Music Matters Media
Tight, sincere, engaging, as well as both pleasant and haunting in exactly the right amounts, FLOWERS for VASES/descansos is one of the best albums of the year thus far and will unquestionably finish out 2021 as one of the best overall.
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Pitchfork
Working in isolation, the Paramore leader extends the healing narrative of last year’s Petals for Armor with a sparse, unadorned album that casts a mournful glance to the past.
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DIY Magazine
A record which further proves that the strength of Hayley Williams - as a songwriter, a vocalist, a woman - is still awe-inspiring.
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The Forty-Five
a stunning exploration of loss.
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