New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Hayley Williams has debuted a behind-the-scenes lyric video for upbeat PETALS FOR ARMOR track "Watch Me While I Bloom," streaming now via YouTube. The track celebrating self-growth appears on Williams' extraordinary debut solo album, PETALS FOR ARMOR, available now via Atlantic Records at all music retailers and streaming services. The album debuted at #1 on the Alternative Album chart, #1 on the Rock Album chart, #3 on the US album sales chart and #4 on the UK chart, as well as landing at #18 on the Billboard 200, and #6 in Australia.
PETALS FOR ARMOR also arrived alongside a new companion video to the album highlight, "Dead Horse," directed by Paramore's Zac Farro and streaming now via YouTube. Produced by Taylor York, Williams' lead collaborator in the GRAMMY® Award-winning Paramore, PETALS FOR ARMOR was greeted by overwhelming international praise and press coverage from renowned outlets including Vogue, Interview, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers Bazaar, NPR, PAPER, Nylon, Teen Vogue, Stereogum, Glamour, Grammy.com, USA Today, and Vanity Fair, just to name a few.
The New York Times declares it "an eclectic, unexpected, ambitious solo project (that lets) the singer and songwriter exorcise demons and stretch her creative powers." The album is "full of feminine imagery and dance music textures that evoke diverse influences from Björk and
Janet Jackson," wrote Rolling Stone. "It's the sound of an artist blooming into some of the best music of her career." PETALS FOR ARMOR "is emotionally vulnerable and musically ambitious," wrote Pitchfork, "one that finds catharsis and enlightenment in the brambles of experimental pop production." The album's candor has been praised alongside its unique rollout, with Billboard writing "The album itself is a cohesive statement - a moving collection of songs that find her at her most honest - buoyed by a release strategy precisely tailored to its three sweeping waves of emotion." "The resulting album stands as a statement of personal strength and her ability to see life and beauty through darkness, of knowing who you really are on your own," summarizes Variety.
