Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne
Released by Epic Records
The girl from Napanee, Ont. is at it again with her eponymously-named fifth album. The 29-year-old brings her iconic pop-punk sound and branches out on this album, co-written with her husband and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.
After the Jagged Little Pill-themed Goodbye Lullaby, Avril Lavigne is a return to the wild and rebellious attitude that she has become known for. Shredding right out of the gate with the anthemic declaration of war against authority, “Rock n Roll,” Lavigne channels a younger version of herself when she sings “I don’t care if I’m a misfit/I like it better than that hipster bullshit.”
“Here’s to Never Growing Up,” “17,” and “Bitchin’ Summer” pick up right where “Rock n’ Roll” leaves off, delivering a quartet of punk anthems that teens will be chanting through the halls of their schools. She delivers nothing new, but the catchy clap-stomp beat and high-energy riffs will appeal to fans nonetheless.
Indeed, these tracks directly allude to and idolize Lavigne’s first album, Let Go. Lavigne hints at this throughout the tracks, but points at it almost directly in “17,” when she states “I remember what it felt like/just the small town kind of life/If we could only go back in time.”
However, Lavigne also expands her range and sound, delving into the darker side of pop-punk. The masterful delivery that Lavigne offers up on “Give You What You Like” may be one of her most lyrically-complex pieces yet. The dark ballad manages to be sensual, but not overtly so.
Lavigne lets loose the tension on “Bad Girl” though, and is joined by none other than Marilyn Manson himself. The casual swing-themed riff is reminiscent of the Antichrist Superstar’s “Doll-Dagga Buzz-Buzz Ziggety-Zag” off his 2003 effort, The Golden Age of Grotesque. Lavigne teases Manson throughout the song, enticing him with the phrase, “Miss me, miss me/now you wanna kiss me.”
The album begins to lose some of its direction and momentum in the second half, beginning with Lavigne’s strange pop electronica homage in “Hello Kitty.” The following tracks of “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Sippin’ on Sunshine,” while closer to what Lavigne would normally deliver, still don’t manage to draw sufficient attention.
She manages to briefly regain interest with “Hello Heartache,” an upbeat choir ballad complete with a nod to Marilyn Monroe, before the album concludes with the two relatively forgetful ballads “Falling Fast” and “Hush Hush.”
Somewhere in between the exhilarating beginning and the dragging end, lies “Let Me Go,” a duet with none other than Kroeger. Although the formulaic ballad drags a bit at the end, it manages to showcase Lavigne’s talents and deliver the punches that a power ballad should. Say what you want about Kroeger, but the pair unexpectedly complement each other quite nicely.
Although it suffered from pacing and ordering problems, Avril Lavigne complements the singer’s existing albums, drawing inspiration from each of her four previous efforts in a seamless manner.
