Imagine that it’s 2007, and I’m 12 years old, running around my middle school and figuring out what it means to go through puberty. The classmates that I was most inspired by were artsy, scene kids who wore shirts from a recent Green Day, All Time Low, or Good Charlotte concert. Inspired by their taste in music, if not their style, I sneakily “borrowed” my dad’s credit card and bought Paramore’s 2005 album on iTunes. And thus, I was grounded for three weeks as I baptized myself into the world of emo pop-punk music.

All We Know is Falling remains, to this day, my favorite album by Paramore.

There is a sort of authentic sincerity in their lyrics that has become increasingly difficult to find since 2010. While Hayley Williams sings openly about her parents’ divorce, visiting her hometown, and more widespread teenage issues. The album is angsty, but it also comes with an integrity. 2010s-era cynicism had not yet taken over the Zeitgeist, only to look with scorn at simple problems that people really, truly feel deeply. I do think that the vibe has begun to shift against cynicism, culturally, thanks to musicians like Phoebe Bridgers and even Olivia Rodrigo (who plagiarized “Misery Business,” but does share Paramore’s teen angst).

Listening today, the instrumentation sounds stale, almost vanilla, but it resonates with me out of a sense of sheer nostalgia for being a child and learning to find my way for the very first time. Paramore was an important group to me as I was growing up, and I could listen to this album on repeat.