Avril's Third Attempt at Recording a Decent Album (The Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	The Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne
Date:	09/02/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 'When You're Gone' is borderline entertaining.

Disadvantages: The album is largely disappointing, full of tracks that don't impress.

Avril Lavigne launched onto the music scene back in 2002 with her début album 'Let Go', an album which successfully got the ball rolling in terms of her career and gained her great notoriety with tracks such as 'Sk8er Boi' and 'Complicated' performing extremely well commercially as single releases. Clearly armed with a degree in text speak and a passion for producing poor pop music; Avril Lavigne has now been around for six years and still she shows no signs of disappearing. 'The Best Damn Thing' is Avril Lavigne's third studio release and has sold over 5.2 million copies worldwide. Having sold so many copies around the world, it is clear that there are a lot of people out there that love this Canadian solo artist, I however am not one of them.

'The Best Damn Thing' is as hideous a release as ever from the Canadian born pop sensation. It begins with the horrible single release 'Boyfriend', a track that makes me cringe every time I hear it and never once do things ever improve as the album progresses. The lyrics of Avril Lavigne are completely dire, devoid of any intellect or real excitement. The music just sounds entirely manufactured, it is made for radio 'Pop Rock' at its worst. It is successful in its aim however, and with 'Girlfriend' having hit the number one spot in many countries across the world it is clear that followers of Pop music like what they hear with Avril Lavigne and for that I respect her. This is music that a lot of people can listen to and relate to, music which is bought by many and enjoyed by people all across the world.

Whilst I appreciate that there are a lot of people out there that do enjoy the music of Avril Lavigne, I can't help but hate her 'The Best Damn Thing' album. I think the one thing that annoys me the most about the music of Avril Lavigne is that every track she has ever released always seems to contain the same grating guitar riff. It infuriates me to hear her rocking out the same riff each and every time she comes out with a new track, and from listening to this album it is clear that the same musical composition seems to crop up an unacceptable amount of times. Her voice is also a little on the whiny side as well which never helps; it actually makes listening to 'The Best Damn Thing' quite unbearable at times in fact. In fairness to Avril Lavigne though, there are a lot of solo artists out there that I can't stand the voice of; James Blunt and Kate Nash to name but a few, so she is not alone here.

The most pleasing moment on 'The Best Damn Thing' comes in the form of 'When You're Gone', a track which evokes something inside of me close to enjoyment. It's a semi-competent ballad, but it's just too boring to be entirely enjoyable I feel. It shows signs of promise, but her voice is just too whiny here and the track overall is just too long winded and uninspiring. At four minutes in length, by the time the end comes I am long since tired of the track and can't wait for it to come to an end. If Avril Lavigne works at this sound then she might have something good going here, definitely needs to concentrate harder on improving that voice of hers though.

I shall definitely not be recommending 'The Best Damn Thing', an album which in no way, shape or form lives up to the expectations that the title places upon this release. I really don't understand the appeal of Avril Lavigne, and her latest album has done nothing in the way of changing my mind about her. I always go into listening to albums with an open mind, but I just really didn't like 'The Best Damn Thing' and found it to be lacking in any real excitement and just really rather irritating in fact. I listen to and appreciate quite a broad array of musical artists, but Avril Lavigne just doesn't float my boat at all. There is no great depth to the music at all and whilst I can appreciate that the music is catchy, in this instance the catchiness of the music just leads to great annoyance. 'The Best Damn Thing' consists of twelve tracks, none of which evoke any such feelings of joy for me, and by the time the album ends at forty minutes I truly cannot take any more. Having sold over 5 million copies around the world it is clear that many like Avril Lavigne and therefore you shouldn't really write her off on the basis of what I say here. If you've listened to and liked an Avril Lavigne track in the past then chances are that you'll like this album also, it's just not my cup of tea.

Summary: 'The Best Damn Thing' is not an album that I would recommend.