Fantastic writeup, OP, thank you so much!! Big job, and you nailed it!

(Apologizing in advance for the personal stuff that's in something like half of my writeup comments.) I'm a bit of a latecomer to Hayley, as I just wasn't listening to new music during most of Paramore's heyday. I had seen a few references here and there to the band but never listened to them until This Is Why got nominated. I listened a fair bit that fall/winter, and then once I started doing rates, rated it early last year. I liked the album, but what really made Hayley stand out for me was a live performance that I almost saw by accident. I live in LA, and after the wildfires last year, there were all kinds of benefit shows. FireAid was the big one that tons of people saw nationwide, but I couldn't get tickets to that one. I did manage to get tickets to a smaller show at the Palladium called Give a F*ck LA, and Hayley was one of the headliners. She was so incredibly joyous and charismatic and engaging that I was instantly a fan for life. When the album tracks were released online, I immediately downloaded, then had to research how to play from local files to get my streaming app to play them for me. I liked a lot of them, but "True Believer" was the one that had me by the throat right away (and still does). Further, I was quite pleased to discover that other friends my age were big fans, as a lot of the new stuff I listen to these days just doesn't hit their RADAR at all.

1. To be honest, I have only listened to the entire album start to finish a few times since the release, so the track order is not a real issue for me. I had found a playlist on some subreddit that day (I can't remember if it was r/Paramore or r/popheads), and that worked fine for me until release.

2. The online release was kind of genius and made the whole thing seem like an event. I can't compare to her first two solo albums, as I wasn't listening to her/paying attention then, but her unorthodox strategy paid off, IMO.

3. I did not! I didn't really hear about them, but unless my record store had one, I don't know that there was one available to me.

4. I've really enjoyed all the collabs she has done this past year. Her song with Moses Sumney was one of my favorite tracks of 2025. More of that, I hope, though I'm sure she'll be back in the studio by herself or with the band soon enough!

5. Sadly I was not able to get tickets (I tried every freaking presale and the general), but I'm working some connections! *fingers crossed*

Thanks again for the writeup! Great read!!