I still remember the first time I heard Avril Lavigne - On a listen post at a Virgin store in Chicago. The album was only just out in the States and still a long way away from appearing in the UK, but being a lover of pop/rock and an old fan of the likes of Pat Benatar, Patty Smyth (Scandal) and that ilk, the first bars of Losing Grip had me interested. When this was followed by Complicated, Sk*ter Boi and I'm With You, I thought, quite like it (indeed I would say that Losing Grip and I'm With You remain her musical high points). Bought it. She then followed this up with Under My Skin. Already I was starting to think, not so sure. And now we have Best Damn Thing.
It is hard not to conclude that Avril is going backwards musically, at least unless you're under the age of about 12, in which case you'll probably think this is the best album ever. To be fair it isn't that the album is bad exactly, it is just more of a case that whereas after the first album came out everyone would say that Ashlee Simpson, Katy Rose, Fifi Dobson, Kelly Clarkson et al sounded like Avril, that is no longer the case and I think Avril would kill to have a song like Clarkson's 'Since You've Been Gone' on this current album.
But not to be all negative. Runaway is pretty good, Girlfriend is (to use the name of another song on the album)Contagious; One Of Those Girls is a fun pop tune and Innocence is the better of the ballads. If it's pop punk by numbers your after then Everything Back But You will be for you. It's Sum 41-ness isn't for me and hard to say if this ,bland ballad, When You're Gone or the truly dreadful I Don't Have To Try is the worst thing on here.
According to Music Week BDT shift 60,500 copies in it's first week to give Lavigne her third number one album. Last album under my skin also debuted at number one on sales of 87,500 (and went on the sell 594,000 so far in UK). The Funny stat is that debut album Let Go shifted a massive 74 copies on its first week of release in the UK (current sales sit at 1,720,000)
Expect Hot, and Best Next thing to among future singles.
**
It is hard not to conclude that Avril is going backwards musically, at least unless you're under the age of about 12, in which case you'll probably think this is the best album ever. To be fair it isn't that the album is bad exactly, it is just more of a case that whereas after the first album came out everyone would say that Ashlee Simpson, Katy Rose, Fifi Dobson, Kelly Clarkson et al sounded like Avril, that is no longer the case and I think Avril would kill to have a song like Clarkson's 'Since You've Been Gone' on this current album.
But not to be all negative. Runaway is pretty good, Girlfriend is (to use the name of another song on the album)Contagious; One Of Those Girls is a fun pop tune and Innocence is the better of the ballads. If it's pop punk by numbers your after then Everything Back But You will be for you. It's Sum 41-ness isn't for me and hard to say if this ,bland ballad, When You're Gone or the truly dreadful I Don't Have To Try is the worst thing on here.
According to Music Week BDT shift 60,500 copies in it's first week to give Lavigne her third number one album. Last album under my skin also debuted at number one on sales of 87,500 (and went on the sell 594,000 so far in UK). The Funny stat is that debut album Let Go shifted a massive 74 copies on its first week of release in the UK (current sales sit at 1,720,000)
Expect Hot, and Best Next thing to among future singles.
**
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