Only ten months after the release of her debut solo album Petals for Armor, Hayley Williams just dropped a second one. Flowers for Vases / Descansos came out last week as a surprise to fans.
Hayley Expressed her Feelings About Flowers for Vases / Descansos
After the announcement of the album, Hayley posted an Instagram story sharing her feelings on the album’s release:
“This isn’t really a follow-up to Petals for Armor. If anything, it’s a prequel or some sort of detour between parts 1 and 2 of Petals. Whatever it is, it has two names: ‘Flowers for Vases’ and ‘descansos’. I had written a long and poetic press release but man, after 16 years of being in the music business, 6 albums, and a lot of “strategies” for how to “roll-out” a project the right way… Writing more words in an attempt to describe better words I’ve written for the album at hand just seemed so boring and silly. So I deleted what I had and this is all I’ll leave you with:
– I wrote and performed this album in its entirety. That’s a career first for me.
– I recorded it at my home in Nashville, the home at which I’ve resided since Paramore released After Laughter.
– 2020 was really hard but I’m alive and so my job is to keep living and help others do the same.
– Yes, Paramore is still a band.
Hope you enjoy FLOWERS for VASES / descansos. If you don’t, better luck next time.
Hayley”
The Meaning of the Titles
The titles of the album also have big importance to Hayley. In an article published by American Songwriter on February 8, 2021, she said that she added “flowers for vases” on a shopping list one day, after discarding a bunch of wilted flowers she kept in her home for what seemed too long. “The writing “flowers for vases” had this weight to it. It was time to put new life in these vessels and carry that forward, instead of carrying around these dead little skeletons of flowers.”
The second title, Descansos, is a nod to the book Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a major source of inspiration for Hayley’s earlier album Petals for Armor. Flowers for Vases serves as a metaphorical descanso (a roadside memorial), collecting “All of love delusion’s, hurtful moments and ways I may have failed myself to continue to grow, live better and love people and myself better,” Hayley stated.
Flowers for Vases / Descansos has an overall chill vibe, one that follows the style of Petals for Armor but also has its own. Hayley really created a masterpiece.
