We liked the follow-up single too? Told ya!

[Video]
[6.75]

Hannah Jocelyn: “Told You So” is a bit of a come-down after “Hard Times” and a baffling choice for a single when plenty of other songs on After Laughter are more immediate, but it’s a grower in a way that’s surprising and entirely welcome. I love the math-rock-influenced guitar line in the chorus and somewhat dissonant synths in the bridge, which sounds like Hayley Williams has been listening to Everything Everything just as much as she was inspired by Talking Heads on “Hard Times” and Haim elsewhere on the record. One thing that especially surprised me here are the lyrics; it took a while for the meaning to click, but the narrative of being screwed over and laughed at rings especially true for a band like Paramore. If there’s one thing clear about Paramore’s history, it’s that they are a singularly troubled band, starting incredibly young and surviving years and years of lineup changes and hardship to reach this point. “I’ve been through a lot” is about right.
[7]

Will Adams: A marked improvement from “Hard Times,” swapping out crowded arrangement for pure airiness, guitars and synths and vocals all playfully ricocheting in different directions.
[7]

Ryo Miyauchi: There’s an underlining lived-in darkness beneath this technicolor pop that I couldn’t find in “Hard Times” to make Paramore’s struggles feel personal. And the band’s angular riffs finally meets its brilliant match in Hayley’s staccato bridge.
[6]

Alfred Soto: An exercise in the judicious use of space and dynamics. A showcase for a dynamite lead singer. Not one second longer than necessary.
[8]

Thomas Inskeep: How fucking awesome that Paramore have not only gone in a fairly new wave direction on After Laughter, but that they’re spiking it with highlife guitars cribbed from classic Afropop, of all things. They’re doing an excellent job making feeling bad feel very good. 
[9]

Micha Cavaseno: I’ve been surprised that so many have been entertaining such a lackluster return from Paramore. Pare back the 80s infatuations on your and their parts for a moment and let’s note this song for what it is: a bunch of ridiculously dull melodies, some unnecessary guitar noodly bits that nobody wants from this band, let alone tips to the hat of non-rock elements like those vocal squelches for emphasis. Everything here is the most banal this band has ever been, and frankly suggests that maybe they’re forcing their career a little bit longer than they should.
[2]

Tim de Reuse: A decent pop effort hamstrung by a mix that’s all plastic and uncomfortably bright and an arrangement that’s as well-organized as a post-earthquake Toys ‘R’ Us.
[5]

Rachel Bowles: Hayley Williams has always been a favourite to sing my sadness and very occasionally unadulterated joy. When a friend committed suicide I played “That’s What You Get” over and over, wishing for the robotic mania that sometimes takes over in times of great stress, typified in “Hard Times.” It seems the monster buried with Lauren Mayberry on the anthemic “Bury It” has returned, as it’s always wont to do, in After Laughter — when the worst has happened but worse is always yet to come. The angular guitars on “Told You So”‘s chorus would have my sad self hitting the indie disco floor hard, but the real clincher is William’s channeling Annie in the slow build of “Throw me into the fire/throw me in/pull me out again.”
[10]