Hayley Williams Emerges From A Cocoon of Worry In 'Leave It Alone'

The gentle breaths, the warmth in her shaky voice, the poignant lyricism about loss that chills your bones. Hayley Williams's new single, "Leave It Alone," is an emotionally raw taste of her new era, focused on not necessarily death itself, yet losing what you hold dear. She's tasked with accepting this and turning her looming frown into a grin, nevertheless it's hard. Listeners are left to contemplate with their own sense of this understanding. How hard is it really to continue walking as soon as everything around you can would be falling down?


Williams's voice creeps along as if she's singing with her eyes closed in her room soon after blowing her nose red. She's asking tough questions through an emotional venting session that she might not directly really wish to know the response to. "Don't nobody tell me/ That God don't have a sense of humor/ Because right now that I'd like to live/ Well, everybody around me is dying," she wonders aloud with the sort of inflection that could be an incredulous chuckle as a substitute if the lines weren't being sung. She embraces these harsh emotions with an open mind, going into detail about warding off self-harm.


In this intense and emotional tune, she also takes the time to seemingly address her grandmother, who suffered from head trauma right after falling down a flight of stairs. "You don’t remember my name somedays/ Or that we’re related/ It triggers my worry/ Who else am I gonna lose before I am ready?" She croons dejectedly. Her conclusion to everything that she brings up on the song comes in the last verse that's both the most powerful and the most accepting. "If you know love/ You best prepare to grieve/ Let it enter your open heart and/ Then prepare to let it leave."


This concept of growth can also be noticed in the artsy video released alongside it featuring Williams as a cocoon breaking out of her shell. At the starting of the video, she's only able to move her eyes, presumably at the same time that she's restricted by her anxious feelings. Because the song goes on, she gradually becomes looser and by the end, she breaks her head out for her first real breath in ages.


"Leave It Alone" is set to appear on Williams's forthcoming album, Petals for Armor that's set to drop on May 8. The LP will also include the recently released single "Simmer" that's about the power of rage.


Check out the slightly unnerving video for "Leave It Alone" up above.