Hayley Williams leaves her mark in the music video for “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” one of her 17 new songs released last week. “I still believe in Nashville,” she etches onto a wall in black ink during one scene. The Zachary Gray-directed video takes place in the city, following the musician through an early morning and an even later night.
“I’ll be the biggest star/At this racist country singer’s bar,” she sings from the backseat of a car, then again while hitting a two-step by the Cumberland River alongside Nashville Representative Justin Jones. “I’ll be the biggest star/At this bachelorette party bar,” she continues, this time while walking down Broadway and giving a few dollars to a man on the street raising funds for a penis reduction. And naturally, when she sings “I’ll be the biggest star/At this fucking karaoke bar,” she’s on the mic at a holiday-themed karaoke bar.
Williams doesn’t make a big fuss about her homecoming, hanging around town, shooting darts, and downing hot dogs. But on the “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” bridge, she laments, “Got too big for my britches/Too big for my fishes/The sea got shallower/Every day I danced – I said my prayers/It never rained/And I just want to be in California/Heaven laughs ‘cause they all tried to warn us/They sent me right back/From where I came/My tail between my legs/On Broadway.”
The untitled 17-track collection is the first Williams has shared on her newly-launched venture Post Atlantic, distributed via Secretly Distribution. Nashville becomes another prominent musical character on “True Believer,” where the musician continues her interrogation of the city she’s seen change before her.
“Tourists stumble down Broadway/Cumberland keeps claiming bodies/All our best memories/Were bought and then turned into apartments,” she sings. “The club with all the hardcore shows/Now just a greyscale Domino’s/The churches overflow each Sunday, greedy Sunday morning.”
It isn’t rock bottom, but as Williams declares on “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party,” she can only go up from here.
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