Album Review: Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

Hayley Williams, captured in contemplative grayscale, quietly marks a new chapter in her musical journey with the release of "Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party". Zachary Gray

“One of the most recognizable voices of this generation, Hayley Williams returns to solo music, independently, with a very personal, and emotional album.” 

In May 2025, Lead Singer of the band “Paramore” and Platinum Record Selling Artist Hayley Williams said on a private Instagram account that she accidentally started working on music. Not having released solo music in almost half a decade and not releasing an album with her band in 2 years.

Fast Forward 2 months later, July 25th, she delivered a CD to a radio station in Nashville containing the songs “Mirtazapine” and “Glum”. 5 days later, this album was made available on her website via an access code from her hair dye company (Good Dye Young). It would close after 24 hours before the songs would be released on streaming platforms on August 1st all as singles. It wouldn’t be until the 28th of August when this would be released in its complete form, in order with one added song (titled “Parachute”). 

It was very important to explain the announcement and release process to truly capture how the album was made. Sometimes creativity can just hit you randomly and it leads to something great being created. That great thing being created is Hayley’s 3rd Studio Album "Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party”.

This album, I feel is one of the best ones to be released this whole year.  

This album has 18 tracks, and I’d be remiss to not mention a few of the standouts from this project. The first being my personal favorite song “Negative Self Talk”. A song, with somber sounding instrumentation in which Hayley is almost confronting her own personal thoughts and rebelling against the negativity that is within herself(in the final bridge leading into the chorus, her saying “Nothing more will enter me but light before going into the final chorus saying “No I won’t hear it” ahead of repeating the chorus).  

A collage of Hayley Williams in black and white, accented by hand-drawn yellow illustrations, visually echoes the introspective emotion and creative spark behind "Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party."

Equally as important as the questions and thoughts had within herself throughout the album, A major theme is about her thoughts on where she was upbringing (more specifically, Nashville). 2 songs draw heavy focus to that. The title track and “True Believer". The title track’s main repeating line is “I’ll be the biggest star in this racist country singer’s bar.” Calling out the area for its very troubled past, a lot of artists with various allegations tied to racism own several bars within Nashville (Kid Rock and Morgan Wallen to name a couple.). Whilst also stating this, she believes she can get away from this in this chorus (“Can only go up from here”).  

Probably the most powerful song on this album would be “True Believer”. A much more direct finger pointed towards the entire region of the south for their past. The 2nd verse is exceptional and truly paints the picture of the issue. From Anti Homelessness policies to the romanticizing of firearms, to its very much racist roots. Closing by saying “The south will not rise again until it's paid for every sin”.  

In totality, this project is deep, it’s honest and it sounds amazing. I might even consider it Hayley’s best solo work to date. I recommend it to people who just enjoy alternative/pop/rock music, but I also urge everyone to dig deeper into the lyrics because it is as well produced as it is well written.