Damn, funny sense she's getting pretty good reviews here. I checked out that albom a few weeks ago before it hit stores obviously and it's a bit shallow but, what do they expect. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Samuel Proulx" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "talk2" <talk2@AndreLouis.COM> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:17 PM Subject: The Talk2 List Avril's latest: Only the best damn thing if you're 14
This from Toronto's largest newspaper; I thought we were supposed to have love for our fellow Canadians? Huh. Guess not. Honestly...The globe isn't usually this bitchy. Avril's latest: Only the best damn thing if you're 14 The Globe and Mail The Best Damn Thing is not the worst damn thing, but it is a calculated thing -- a shallow, callow, unrefreshing thing. Avril Lavigne, the sassy-imp pop creation from Napanee, Ont., is a 22-year-old married woman posing as a child and performing to an audience that counts training bras and braces for their teeth as their year's eventful acquisitions. Add the new album from Lavigne to the list, and now the pink, sparkly cellphones really begin to squeal. The material is mostly fun and frivolous, a fact the singer readily admits. "My last record had songs that were, like, so literal," she told USA Today, referring to 2004's Under My Skin. "This record isn't a serious diary. It's not even really about anything I'm going through right now." What she's going through these days is married life with Sum 41's Deryck Whibley, her new husband, with whom she shares a newly purchased $9.5-million L.A. mansion. Are there tunes about her man? "I have a couple of, whatever -- love songs, or whatever you want to call them," Lavigne said. Yes, Avril, the resolute Keep Holding On is what we call a love song. You wouldn't know that the Complicated singer is involved in a mature relationship, not with songs (written with the help of professional tunesmiths) that have her bashing boys, being bratty and looking for catfights down at the mall. On the drummy, driving first single, Girlfriend (with the cheerleading Hey Mickey beat), Lavigne is full of herself. "She's like so whatever," sings Lavigne, in bitch mode. "You could do so much better." Like Girlfriend, the following I Can Do Better comes swift with tom-toms and expletives deleted, with our helium-voiced heroine giggling and growling to an old Billy Idol riff. The acoustic strummed intro of the pop-rocking Runaway sounds familiar as well; here, Lavigne is having a bad day. The title track is a swirl of fun, with a highly confident star (oddly employing a faux Brit accent) cheered on by that pom-pom squad again: Give us an "A," give us a "V." Give us a break, which is what we have with the strings and sobs of When You're Gone and the piano-serious Innocence, with its Sarah McLachlan-like vocal nuances. But we're back to merriment on the hip hop and punk lite of I Don't Have to Try, with its fast churn and choir of backup-singing chipmunks. Lavigne is fun and assertive, telling her boy that she's the one who knows the dance and she's the one who wears the pants. "Don't you disagree, 'cause you know it's all about me." Is it all about Avril? Of course it is -- she's the scene, she's the drama queen. Is she having fun with her bratty, spit-at-the-photographer reputation? You would suppose so. Is this album of any interest to any listener over 14? Probably not. Does that even matter? No, it doesn't mean a damn thing. Did you miss a message? Well, don't. http://www.mail-archive.com/talk2%40andrelouis.com/ has it for you. Never miss a Talk2 message again. Did you miss a message? Well, don't. http://www.mail-archive.com/talk2%40andrelouis.com/ has it for you. Never miss a Talk2 message again.
