Avril Lavigne first made waves with her debut album Let Go in 2002 and her effects on the music industry are undeniable. She’s been credited with launching the pop-punk genre into the mainstream and paving the way for other young, female artists in and beyond pop-punk. Compared to the monumental success of her early work, Lavigne’s 2022 album Love Sux is, well, flat. Don’t get me wrong, there are worthwhile tracks on the album; Travis Barker produced it and was the drummer for eight of the 12 songs, and the percussion is definitely a standout on the album. The album as a whole does a good job of returning to Lavigne’s formulaic pop-punk, but it’s missing some of the original edge that made her famous.
Part of what made Lavigne so revolutionary was that both her musical style and image were original concepts, with brazen disregard for the stereotypical pop singer. She was called the “Teen-Pop Slayer,” pitting her against the mold that Britney Spears popularized for white female singers in the 90s. Let Go (2002) and Under My Skin (2004) were genre-changing bodies of work; you’d be hard-pressed to find another artist from this age whose influence has reached as far as hers has. Pop-punk dominated the airwaves in the early 2000s and sprawled into countless indie subgenres, emo rap, and into the 2010s. From Billie Eilish to 5 Seconds of Summer, Ed Sheeran to Charli XCX, even Nipsey Hussle to Rico Nasty, Avril Lavigne skated so that they could run.
I’m a big fan of music videos, and Avril Lavigne’s early music videos, even the ones with lower production, are so good. “Complicated” and “Sk8er Boi” perfectly capture Lavigne’s signature image: a cool, edgy skater, disrespectful towards authority but still vulnerable, caught up in dramatic teenage relationships. It’s effortless; even when logic tells you they definitely hired a stunt double when Lavigne front-flips and dunks in the “Complicated” music video, it still feels like something she would do. Her charisma made her viral before internet fame was really a thing; the original music video for “Girlfriend” was the first video on YouTube to reach 100 million views. One caveat is that they are occasionally laced with the 2000s trend of not-so-subtle product placement, though this doesn’t always necessarily detract from the video. I’d commend the Sony executive who paid for an ad slot in a music video where Avril uses a chainsaw built into her guitar to cut off the head of a half bear, half-shark creature. (Please, go watch the “Rock N Roll” music video right now, it should have won an Oscar).
So then, when you look at her 2022 work, they just can’t compete where they don’t compare. To me, a good music video can save a bad song, but a bad music video can definitely kill a mediocre song. In the case of “Bite Me”, Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker are just standing around lip-syncing the song. There’s nothing particularly bad about it, but by the same token, it’s not all that interesting. It’s a shame that she gained popularity by subverting expectations, yet the most unexpected thing about her new work is that it’s kind of boring. As for the album, separate from the music videos, the opening track “Cannonball” intrigued me because it has elements of hyperpop with some Avril twist. “Deja Vu” and “Love Sux” definitely deliver on the nostalgic teenage angst that she’s pretty much created the blueprint for, so I expected to like those songs. I think I’d say “Break Of A Heartache” is my favorite; it’s snarky, fast-paced, and leaves me wanting more, which is ironic since it’s the shortest song on the album. I think that statement echoes my overall impression of the album: I was hoping for more from the inventor of punk-rock.
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