The Best Damn Thing?

The new and improved Avril Lavigne’s record came out this week. Why do I care? Because there was an eleven year old waiting for me to come home on Tuesday to take her to the store so she could spend her allowance on a copy. A. has been playing “Girlfriend” on her iPod for about a month now. I like “Girlfriend” because it makes me think of being a pre-teen myself loving Toni Basil’s “Mickey”, same concept. Because of A’s love of Avril we have every CD and also saw her perform an acoustic set at a mall here in St. Louis a few years ago which proved that she can play guitar and sing well without the help of studio magic.

When Avril first came on the scene with songs like “Complicated” and “Sk8tr Boi” I thought it was a refreshing change from the Christina’s and Britney’s of the world. She wasn’t shaking her ass in the camera. The second album was darker but A. loved it anyway. In fact there was a road trip where I think I probably heard that CD fifteen times. My hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter when it was A’s turn to pick the music, knowing I would have to hear that CD again.

So the new album is coming out and personally I am wondering what the now married Avril will release. In the first video released, “Girlfriend” we see an image change. The video is slick, Avril is glammed up, and there is even choreography. I was shocked. With Britney off imploding before our very eyes and Christina doing her best Andrews Sisters impression did either Avril or her management see a void in the music scene?

Then she performed on Saturday Night Live last week. She sounded okay but did not look at all like the girl in the video. She looked more like the girl who would be rolling her eyes at the girl in the video. She must be going through career schizophrenia. Who can blame her at her age?

I’ve been subjected to the new album more than once by A. The up tempo songs are fun and if I were eleven years old, I would be obsessed. The ballads are so so.

One final note, my child of the digital age could have downloaded the album as soon as she woke up last Tuesday but she said to me weeks before in anticipation of the purchase that she wanted to buy it at the store. So while we hear never-ending reports of declining CD sales, some of us still want something tangible to hold as we listen to our new music. --J