Paramore Released Their Video For 'Playing God'

The rock outfit Paramore's most recent third album "Brand New Eyes," a darker, more mature, more tumultuous collection of tunes than anything the band had ever done, has been out for nearly 14 months now, but the teen faves are still squeezing singles out of the Gold-certified disc like there's no tomorrow. The punk pop band have just released a new video for the angry mid-tempo track "Playing God," the fifth single overall from album. The tongue-in-cheek video goes as far to tug at the band's subdued Christian roots, suggests that the red-headed frontwoman Hayley Williams is indeed "Playing God" with the rest of the band, keeping them tied up in a basement and poisoning them Lady Gaga style.
The Brandon Chesbro-directed video was shot entirely at Williams's house in Franklin, Tennessee. It opens with Williams sitting in her actual car in front of her actual house, and sees Williams looking at old band photos and performing in front of mirrors in her guest room, and also taking a page out of Jazmine Sullivan's "woman scorned" book, as she holds her bandmates captive in the basement underneath her home and proceeds to terrify them with a mixture of vengeful self-hatred and eerie detachment. The video, is reportedly meant to be a tribute and a farewell to their album, explains how a small woman like her is able to take down four strong men like her bandmates. It turns out that she drugs the guys while they come by for a tea party.
Williams said that this song is "about self-righteous people and me feeling the blow of that." She added, "The main line in the chorus is about people who place blame and how they should look at themselves first. It's something I've dealt with since I was young. What I love about the song is the contrast between the subject matter and the melody. The song, at its core, is very angry. I'm ripping at self-righteous people, ripping at my own bandmates and anyone who ever made me feel not good enough. But the overall tone of the song is completely different. It's laid back and really fun. It's one of my favorite bridges on the record and one of those that we've been waiting to write for a long time."
The message appears clear: Paramore are returning home, looking back, wrapping things up. "Playing God" is a bittersweet, sentimental thing, a scrapbook of the past year of their lives, and the final chapter in the "Brand New Eyes" saga. It's a story that began with the band's future severely in doubt and concludes with them stronger, happier and better than ever. Paramore are currently in the U.K. whipping through another tour, but they'll be back in Tennessee next week to celebrate Thanksgiving before hitting a handful of holiday radio festivals in the month of December.