The lead single from Paramore’s second album Riot!. It’s been featured in numerous video games and also nominated for the Best Video award from 2007’s Kerrang! Awards.

Hayley went on to say the song reflects how her angsty 17-year-old self-dealt with a close friend (who she was possibly falling in love with) but was becoming distant – and thus is not necessarily something she identifies after nearly a decade.

On May 31, 2015, Hayley said about the track:

“Misery Business” is not a set of lyrics that I relate to as a 26-year-old woman. I haven’t related to it in a very long time. those words were written when I was 17… admittedly, from a very narrow-minded perspective. It wasn’t really meant to be this big philosophical statement about anything. it was quite literally a page in my diary about a singular moment I experienced as a high schooler.

Hayley announced on September 9, 2018 that Paramore will no longer be performing this track on stage again.

In 2020, reflecting on the early years, Hayley admitted that the song was about Josh:

When I was 13 or 14 and I had a crush on Josh, he didn’t like me back. He would go hang out with his girlfriend, who I wrote “Misery Business” about because I was a dick.