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Music Review:
The Best Damn Thing, Avril Lavigne
THE BEST DAMN THING
1. Girlfriend
2. I Can Do Better
3. Runaway
4. The Best Damn Thing
5. When You're Gone
6. Everything Back But You
7. Hot
8. Innocence
9. I Don't Have To Try
10. One Of Those Girls
11. Contagious
12. Keep Holding On
JUICY TIDBITS
There’s a lot that you can say about Avril Lavigne, the 23-year-old pop-punk princess who’s made millions crafting a unique image and sound that seems to resonate with present-day teens. Whether you like her music or not, you can’t argue that she’s found the perfect niche in which to capitalize on her waning talents without compromising her furiously defended principles and values. With The Best Damn Thing, Avril wants us to know that she’s never left the scene, even if a marriage to Sum 41 lead singer Deryk Whibley, numerous spreads in fashion magazines, and a puzzling friendship with Paris Hilton might prove otherwise.
On her second album, Under My Skin (2004), we saw a departure from Lavigne’s debut two years ago, as both her music and lyrics took on a much more mature and subdued sound. Mildly less angry than when she implored her friend to stop acting like a faker in “Complicated,” Lavigne went soft around the edges with singles like “Nobody’s Home” and “Fall to Pieces.” Under My Skin did well, but ultimately ran out of steam and fell short of Let Go’s success. Not one to oppose the path of least resistance, Lavigne reverted back to what she knows best, and released “Girlfriend” as the first single from her third album, The Best Damn Thing. A juvenile anthem about stealing someone’s boyfriend, “Girlfriend” skyrocketed up the charts and cemented Lavigne’s status as a hit-maker. It doesn’t really matter that “Girlfriend” includes some of the most infantile sentiments ever written in a song, or that it’s annoying in exactly the same way that “Mickey” was annoying twenty years ago – the track has a rhythmic, poppy tune, and Lavigne seems to have genuine fun singing it. That’s all that matters, right?
Collaborators on this album include Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls, Alanis Morissette), Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson, Kelis, Kelly Osbourne, Paris Hilton, Mos Def), Butch Walker (Pink, Lindsay Lohan, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects), and even husband Deryk Whibley – a range of producers with varying talent that ultimately produces mixed results. Let’s start with some multiple choice:
Avril Lavigne is now edgier because:
a) she has pink streaks in her hair
b) she swears in her songs
c) she wears pink streaks in her hair while she swears in her songs
d) she seemingly hates everyone who isn’t her
e) none of the aboveWhen I first listened to this album, I thought:
a) I had mistakenly inserted Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape
b) Avril Lavigne could give P. Diddy’s monotonic rapping a run for its money
c) When Avril Lavigne announced on her MySpace page that this album was going to be “really fast, fun, young, bratty, aggressive, confident, cocky in a playful way,” she was only telling half-truths
d) It has to get better
e) All of the aboveThe main theme of The Best Damn Thing is:
a) All exes suck, and so do their new girlfriends
b) Throwing cockiness and slanderous epitaphs around is a good way to get over a broken heart
c) Being bratty gets you all the hot guys
d) Anyone who isn’t Avril Lavigne sucks
e) All of the aboveIf you chose E, congratulations! You know exactly how I felt listening to this album.
But even though Lavigne’s third studio album is a letdown, it doesn’t mean that it’s all bad. In fact, let’s take a look at some of the finer moments in this twelve-track CD.
Things pick up with “Hot,” one of the few songs on the album where Avril doesn’t want to beat up someone. It begins with a melodic opening that showcases the better half of Lavigne’s range, and shifts to staccato beats in the first verse that merge seamlessly into a slow, harmonious chorus. The variety in the song is enough to warrant it a green light, as does the fact that it’s infectious in a good way. The bridge – totally out of place here – is a detriment to the song as Lavigne seems to grasp for notes out of her range, but thankfully it’s short and we’re back to the engaging chorus.
Although Lavigne strives to keep The Best Damn Thing upbeat, she does include several ballads, which are all fair. “When You’re Gone,” the second single from the album, starts with an angst-ridden Lavigne lamenting the loneliness she feels without her lover, and swells with a glorious guitar harmony that – dare I say it – almost produces something akin to a power ballad. Of the song, Lavigne says, “It’s not cheesy, because I wrote it [the song is also credited to Butch Walker, but we’re not nit-picking here]. If I was older, a professional writer coming up with all that, that would be lame.” Contrary to Lavigne’s quote, the song is cheesy, regardless of whoever wrote it, but it’s somehow more real than any of the posturing she does on many of these tracks.
Two oddly positive songs, “Runaway” and “Innocence,” sound almost out of place on this album. “Innocence” is most notable for Lavigne’s strong vocals. It’s not that she tackles the song with the grace and fervour of Christina Aguilera, per se, but it’s a melodic respite from the usual talk-yelling featured in so many tracks. “Runaway” (which is not a remake of “Nobody’s Home,” as the title may suggest) is a fast-paced track about staying positive and taking life in stride. In the poppy, happy-go-lucky chorus, Lavigne sings, “I just wanna scream and lose control / Throw my hands up and let it go / Forget everything and runaway.” Although the song is decent, it’s also generic, and unfortunately reminiscent of a Hilary Duff pop-princess send-up.
Borrowing a page from “Girlfriend” is the titular track, “The Best Damn Thing,” which is as close to pep-rally goodness as one can get with the call-and-response tactic employed by so many pop starlets who can’t be bothered to write a new song. Lavigne opens with, “I hate it when a guy doesn’t get the door / Even though I told him yesterday / And the day before,” and we all hope that it’s tongue-in-cheek. The song gets marginally better with an upbeat chorus, but when Lavigne starts to spell out her name (“Give me an A, always give me what I want / Give me a V, be very very good to me”), the song falls apart.
Similarly, “I Don’t Have to Try” features Lavigne talk-singing to a retro beat as she tells us that she’s “the one who wears the pants.” The song veers off into rock as blatantly familiar guitar riffs perfected by Sum 41 waft throughout, like a haunting melody of lovers past. Sadly, this recycled tidbit is the only good thing about the song. At the two-third mark, Lavigne even tries screaming into the mike to add an authentic punk style that, on her, just seems unnatural and kind of dirty.
“I Can Do Better” features strong drums (provided by tabloid-friendly ex-Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker) and an “angry” Lavigne, who sings in such a monotone that it sounds like she’s trying out a British accent. Yes, Avril can do better, but that doesn’t negate the fact that she went out with this guy in the first place. Titillating lyrics like “I am so / Sick of you / You’re on my nerves / I want to puke” (which sadly sound like something out of my tenth grade poetry notebook), round out the song. The track begins and ends with Lavigne’s devilish laughing, which makes for annoying filler. In keeping with the theme of hateful exes, “Everything Back But You” is about a new girlfriend who is a “bitch, slut, psychobabe.” I think it’s safe to say that Alanis Morissette did the bitter ex-lover spiel way more eloquently than Lavigne ever could.
Shifting effortlessly from playful to angst-ridden to bitter is something that Lavigne has crafted during her years in the music industry, and it serves her well in this album. What doesn’t serve The Best Damn Thing very well is the seeming lack of passion that originally catapulted the young singer into the limelight. There are tracks to sing along to, tracks to bop our heads to, and tracks to love here, but they’re few and far apart. What’s left is filler for the masses that’s heavy on the image and light on substance. Lavigne sings about bravado and arrogance and being the best damn thing, but this album ain’t it. ¤ C.Ho.
THE BEST DAMN THING:
(out of 5)