Reviewing The Best Damn Thing

Yes, I am a fan and I’m not ashamed to admit that. Avril Lavigne’s latest, The Best Damn Thing, may not be the best damn thing she’s ever created musically but it hits on the same notes that make her pop-rock songs so incredibly mainstream and radio-friendly. The lead single “Girlfriend” and “The Best Damn Thing” may look like Avril’s selling out but after you hear them both a few times they manage to turn themselves into sarcastic rockish cheerleader tributes to “Hey Mickey” with Gwen Stefani influences and can become, like another catchy song on this album, quite “Contagious” (‘I cannot get it out of my mind’). These are the kind of songs you can’t take really seriously; more like junk food radio hits. Slower more moodier songs like “When You’re Gone” may not be as solid a pop song as the popular “With You” and the chorus of the song “Innocence” sounds somewhat familiar to another predecessor, “Don’t Tell Me”, but all in all they are good listens. For the most part, punkier songs on this album are much more faster than the usual style, which may have something to do with Travis Barker’s drumming on some of these tracks.

Rolling Stone magazine gave it three out of five stars, which is also what they gave Hillary Duff. And while for the sake of my ego I probably won’t ever listen to the latter, I think three out of five is an accurate accolade in my opinion.

This album will probably turn into fun car-cruising material for the summer. But not everyone will dig it.