Avril Lavigne – Avril Lavigne

The self-titling of this album sums up this new release – the lack of any real focus or theme pulling the songs together. The feeling one gets from the music is that Avril Lavigne has made this album because it’s the music she wants to play, regardless of the reception. It’s this personality that is stamped over every guitar riff – from the bizarrely psychedelic Hello Kitty to the rushing, clean melodies of You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.

On this album, Lavigne finally fully shows off her most intoxicating quality – the power of her voice. The angst-ridden teenage listeners who were alienated by her apparent conversion to pop with the release of her third album will recognise the slightly more gritty aspect to her earlier music returning here; it’s clear that Lavigne has been through a process of experimentation and discovery with her music. Avril Lavigne is a dance-like-nobody’s-watching series of songs that showcase the musical identity she has now seemingly secured.

“Acting how she [sic] felt” has been a constant theme through her musical career, and Seventeen in particular shows the self-development that she’s acutely aware of – the result of which is right here to listen to in slightly confused suspension of belief-laced enjoyment.

The album loses strength towards the end, with weaker hooks and a frustratingly avoidable sense of Chad Kroeger’s fingerprints upon Let Me Go, a duet between Lavigne and her Nickelback husband. It does pick up pace though with a couple of sweetly melodic ballads and an ecstatically bouncy track appropriately titled Slippin’ on Sunshine. Avril Lavigne is, for the most part, a great new release from the self-proclaimed “mother-freaking princess”, and definitely worth a listen.

Francesca Laidlaw

Avril Lavigne is released on 1^st November 2013. For further information or to order the album visit Avril Lavigne’s website here.

Watch the video for Rock ‘n’ Roll here: