Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party


Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is the third studio album by the American singer-songwriter Hayley Williams. She first uploaded 17 of the 20 songs to her official website on July 28, 2025, and later released them as standalone tracks onto streaming services on August 1. Williams officially self-released the album on August 28, under an independent imprint titled Post Atlantic, two years after her departure from Atlantic Records. Two additional songs were added to the album on October 24 and November 7. Williams co-wrote the songs, performed several instruments, and collaborated with the producer Daniel James, who was accompanied by Jim-E Stack and Brian Robert Jones on select tracks. The album received widespread critical acclaim upon its release.

Release and marketing

On July 23, 2025, the Nashville public radio station WNXP reported that a new song by Williams would be premiering on the station that night. The announcement was accompanied by a video of a person holding a CD which had the words "Mirtazapine" and "Glum" written with a marker. The former, referring to the antidepressant of the same name, was ultimately the song in question, premiering as scheduled without any detail regarding any official release. It was Williams's first solo release since her 2021 album Flowers for Vases / Descansos. Two days later, she performed the song live at the Newport Folk Festival with Bleachers during their set. On July 28, the singer uploaded 17 new including the aforementioned—to her official website. The tracks could only be accessed after entering a 16-digit code that was sent to fans who purchased a product from Williams's hair dye company Good Dye Young. Music publications gave the untitled collection of songs the title Ego, the same name of the yellow dye product from Williams's brand. The website featured a similar style as 2000s Microsoft Windows desktop displays, including the unordered tracks in a MP3 file format above a yellow background with pictures of her dog. Around 24 hours after its publication, the collection was removed from the site, which disclosed the message, "Thank you for listening."
Williams surprise-released the 17 songs individually for streaming on August 1, 2025. It marked her first independent release following her departure from Atlantic Records in 2023—more than 20 years after the beginning of the contract as part of Paramore—and was published under an imprint listed as "Post Atlantic" and distributed via Secretly Distribution. A music video for the track "Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party", directed by Zachary Gray, premiered on August 5. The video was set in Nashville and features a cameo from the politician Justin Jones. In an interview with Billboard, Williams's manager Leah Hodgkiss said that the release marketing was motivated by their idea to "make music tangible" and "an experience" again. She elaborated on how people tend to "not even pay attention to what listening to" due to curated playlists on streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music. Williams wanted to refer to the songs as individual singles as she did not think of an album throughout the writing process. The track "Glum" also received a music video, which was co-directed by AJ Gibboney and the Paramore member Zac Farro, and premiered as a single on August 18. It was followed by acoustic versions, "Glum " and "Kill Me ". In an Instagram story, Williams said that the collection would be issued physically, although not meant to be considered an album. She also revealed that she was "listening to potential track-list orders and still trying to create own", hinting at a future re-packaging.
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party was officially released as an album to streaming media on August 28, 2025. It features the 17 previously released songs alongside "Parachute", which premiered as a single on radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 on the same date. Various physical formats are scheduled to be issued on November 7, 2025, also via Post Atlantic. While announcing the release and tracklist on social media, Williams filled tracks 19 and 20 with blank spaces, hinting at two more songs to be released. To complete the tracks order, she was inspired by a fan-made website that collected fans's preferred listings shared as playlists. In an interview with Zane Lowe, the singer explained how she "really did want to shirk the responsibility" and was "interested in other people's perspectives," stating that she was not able to have one as she was "in the eye of storm".
On October 24, a new track, entitled "Good Ol' Days", was added to the album, and subsequently performed by Williams with Bleachers at Rolling Stone's Musicians on Musicians event at New York City's Beacon Theatre, along with three other songs from the album. The album's final track, "Showbiz", was added on November 7, coinciding with the album's physical release. In-person listening party events, dubbed "Ego Nites," were also held in various record stores worldwide in celebration of said physical release.

Tour

In December 2024, four years after the cancellation of her supposed first solo tour, the Petals for Armor Tour, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams first announced her renewed intent to play solo shows in 2025.
On November 7, 2025, an image listing United States, Europe, and United Kingdom dates for a tour in support of the album was quietly added to Williams' website. Three days later, the tour, entitled Hayley Williams at a Bachelorette Party, was formally announced, with supporting acts Water From Your Eyes, Snuggle, and Tiberius b. More shows were added on November 12 due to "overwhelming demand."
In an attempt to make ticket distribution more accessible and affordable, Williams partnered with the platform Openstage to host verified presale registration, hoping to combat bots and scalpers from purchasing tickets for tour dates.

Composition

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is an alternative pop album, which features elements of alternative rock, trip hop, indie rock, folk, synth-pop, and shoegaze. Williams performed several instruments for the album and co-wrote the songs in collaboration with the record producer Daniel James, and also received contributions from Brian Robert Jones and Jim-E Stack, among others.

Critical reception

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party was met with widespread acclaim from music critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 91 based on eleven reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Rolling Stone listed the album at number 9 on their list, "The 100 Best Albums of 2025".

Track listing

Samples

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
;Musicians
  • Hayley Williams – vocals, guitar, drums, keyboards, bass
  • Elise Joseph – vocals
  • Daniel James – keyboards and programming, guitar, bass, vocals
  • Viola Joseph – vocals on "Kill Me"
  • Roger Alan Nichols – guitar
  • Joey Howard – bass
  • Ben Kaufman – strings
  • Brian Robert Jones – bass, guitar, mandolin, programming
  • Jim-E Stack – keyboards and programming on "True Believer"
  • Katrina Urton – vocals on "I Won't Quit on You"
  • Steph Marziano – programming, keyboards, guitar, and vocals on "Parachute"
  • Brian O'Connor – vocals on "Parachute"
  • Kolten Frenzl – vocals on "Parachute"
  • Rusty Williams – vocals on "Good Ol' Days"
;Technical