Avril Lavigne is a girl who knows what she wants. And when it came to writing her eagerly awaited third album, The Best Damn Thing, she had one very clear goal in mind: To make it fun. The Best Damn Thing is brimming with gutsy guitar riffs, instantaneously catchy sing-along party-starting choruses, power pop punk, and rebellious rock 'n' roll attitude
Reviews:
Scantily clad R&B pop tart becomes infatuated with introspective, folksy songwriting, changes entire image. That's a pretty accurate description of Pink's career to this point, and pretty much the opposite of Avril Lavigne's. The latter's first full-length,
Let Go, was a Lilith Fair-ready meditation on heartbreak ("Complicated," "I'm With You"), but five years later, she's more Toni (Basil) than Joni (Mitchell). Breakthrough single "Girlfriend" nicked the handclap euphoria of "Mickey," then borrowed young MC of the moment Lil Mama for a just-as-successful "remix." Honestly, did anyone see the day when Avril went hood coming? Well, unpredictability is the hallmark of great pop music, and Mrs. Deryck Whibley has plenty of that going for her these days. Now if only she could avoid those pesky accusations of plagiarism (the Rubinoos and ex-collaborator Chantal Kreviazuk have piled on), everything would be so so fine/blow our minds.
Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, Toni Basil is thinking of Avril Lavigne, and pulling a
Lost Boys on her tonight. After all, the Sk8r Girl copped (cough, cough' paid
extreme homage to) the sassy handclaps of once-ubiquitous '80s hit "Mickey" for new single "Girlfriend." Thing is, we can't help but dig the new vibe. Having made her name on writing (okay, co-writing) her own stuff during Britney's rise to power, Avril's spunky singles ("Complicated," "Don't Tell Me") had attitude, sure, but in an annoyingly self-righteous kinda way. "Girlfriend" is just plain
nazzzzzz-tee. Suddenly bereft of conscience, it's not just that Avril doesn't like your girlfriend; she's going to eff her up, then you, albeit in totally different ways, of course. Not like she'd actually do that in real life'"she just married the shrimp from Sum-41'"but we can dare to dream, can't we?
Somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, Toni Basil is thinking of Avril Lavigne, and pulling a
Lost Boys on her tonight. After all, the Sk8r Girl copped (cough, cough' paid
extreme homage to) the sassy handclaps of once-ubiquitous '80s hit "Mickey" for new single "Girlfriend." Thing is, we can't help but dig the new vibe. Having made her name on writing (okay, co-writing) her own stuff during Britney's rise to power, Avril's spunky singles ("Complicated," "Don't Tell Me") had attitude, sure, but in an annoyingly self-righteous kinda way. "Girlfriend" is just plain
nazzzzzz-tee. Suddenly bereft of conscience, it's not just that Avril doesn't like your girlfriend; she's going to eff her up, then you, albeit in totally different ways, of course. Not like she'd actually do that in real life'"she just married the shrimp from Sum-41'"but we can dare to dream, can't we?