Cinnamon

Album: Petals for Armor (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Cinnamon" is a sweet, cheery song about Hayley Williams' acceptance of her solitude. It starts off with still-life vignettes of her home life as we learn that she talks to her dog and her house "smells like citrus and cinnamon."

    Throughout the song, Williams keeps singing about how wonderful it is to be alone. Near the end, she warns a love interest that if he came to stay, he would never want to leave her homely residence.
  • Warren Fu (Paramore, The 1975, The Strokes) directed the song's disturbing video. The clip depicts Williams relaxing at home when floral-patterned and wooden interiors come alive and start chasing her. it ends with Williams dancing with the creatures in a display of emotional liberation. "Her eyes snap open again, and she's almost unrecognizable from her former self," Fu explained to MTV News. "After the long build-up of pain and struggle, this is the release, the payoff."

    The visual continues the storyline of Williams' previous two visuals for "Simmer" and "Leave It Alone," both also directed by Fu. The director shot the video trilogy over the course of three days during a cold winter weekend in Tennessee.
  • The song started with a swing beat Williams played on a mini drum kit in producer Taylor York's studio. She embellished the beat by turning it into a new jack swing tune.

    Williams then found an old lyric she'd written for an acoustic guitar song that referenced her move to an empty cottage after splitting from her husband, New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert. "It talked about a vision of my house when I first moved in and the walls were bare," she explained to Pitchfork. "Moving through my home felt like a new discovery all the time. I was discovering myself, really."
  • The track took on a new meaning as Williams moved on from her broken marriage and her new home took shape. "I'm very much living this song most authentically right now," she explained. "Having come from a relationship that was not healthy for many years, it was a big relief for me to wake up alone and be able to decide for myself what a morning in my house looks like. Every morning had this smell to it that was like lemon and hot water and herbs."

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