Paramore‘s sixth studio album, This Is Why, arrived last week Friday, and the goodies from the new set continue to roll in. The band released a brand new music video for “Running Out of Time” on Thursday (Feb. 16), and things get a little trippy for the trio.
The visual kicks off with lead singer Hayley Williams attempting to create magic in a music studio, vacantly strumming a guitar and trying to come up with lyrics to no avail — inspiration does not come to her easily. After looking to where bandmates Taylor York and Zac Farro would take their place in the studio, the drum kit and guitar become 10 feet tall and walk with a human gait, prompting Willams to seek refuge in a guitar case, which then pops her into an alternate dimension.
Things go topsy turvy when Williams, dolled up in a vintage corset and pink satin pants, falls into an alternate universe filled with horse-shaped bushes, larger than life flowers and gigantic mushrooms. York and Farro are there dressed in monochromatic orange and purple ensembles, but there’s one major problem — their arms appear to be over four feet tall in length.
“Intentions only get you so far/ (It was on my list, I swear I meant to get to it)/ A harsh reality to discover, ah/ I’m always runnin’ out of time/ (She’s always runnin’ out of time)/ I’m always runnin’ out of time,” Williams sings on the track’s punchy chorus.
After a series of unusual shenanigans unfold, the band reconvenes and runs on a track in space trying to reach the studio once again, only for there to be a twist at the end of the video.
Williams explained in an interview with Zane Lowe that the groovy track was partly inspired by her relationship with Taylor Swift. After taking a trip to the superstar’s abode and realizing she keeps thank you, birthday and holiday gifts for her friends and family months in advance, Williams was struck with the realization that her life was not together.
“I was like, ‘I can barely remember to send someone a card or flowers.’ There are still Christmas gifts at my house that I have not sent to my friends just sitting there in the back of my closet,” the 34-year-old revealed. “Two of the people I was supposed to give a gift to, I was like, ‘Sorry, I forgot to put [the gifts] in my suitcase so you still don’t get a gift.’ I wish that I was the person that felt like I had all my s–t together and I was like, ‘Oh, I had some extra time, so I’m just popping by with some flowers.’ That kind of a thing, that is my idealized self.”
In an interview with Genius, the Grammy-winning vocalist also shared “my sense of anxiety around time management has gotten worse since the pandemic.” She added, “How does a person who is self-aware enough, but also politically and culturally aware, socially aware, how do you even pick what thing to focus on and maybe devote your life to in some respect, when everything is an emergency? It does feel like there’s not enough time in the day, in the month, in the year, to fix everything.”
Watch Paramore’s video for “Running Out of Time” above.