That Album Sucks - A Review of Avril Lavigne's Love Sux

Avril Lavigne from Belleville, Ontario was once introduced to us as the rebellious teenage girl next door who wears baggy pants and sports shoes and hangs around with punks and skaters. She was refreshingly different from pop artists such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera back in the days and her first two albums were listened to by both fans of pop and rock music. The release of the single ''Girlfriend'' a few years later came as a shock. A superficial woman with heavy make-up and dyed blonde hair was singing about how her crush should ditch his girlfriend in favour of her. Where was the sympathetic, intellectual and empathic girl from the neighbourhood gone to? Since that moment in her career, one just couldn't take Avril Lavigne seriously anymore as a genuine artist.

Fast forward to today as Avril Lavigne releases her seventh studio album which is stupidly titled Love Sux. The record features twelve songs and only thirty-four minutes of music since most tracks don't even reach the three-minute mark. Avril Lavigne indicated that she wanted to go back to the roots and record a worthwhile pop rock album. That is however only partially true and for all the wrong reasons.

None of the new songs has the catchy melodies of ''Complicated'', the punk rock spirit of ''Sk8er Boi'', the passion of ''I'm With You'', the rebellious grit of ''Don't Tell Me'' or the haunting lyrics of ''Nobody's Home''. Instead, the songs revolve around relationships that either have an exaggeratedly romantic side as heard on fluffy ballad ''Kiss Me Like the World Is Ending'' or a bitter aftertaste related to hurt feelings as heard on superficial title track ''Love Sux''. Coming from an artist who has already been divorced twice and whose numerous relationships with the rich and famous have been documented in yellow paper gazettes for two decades and running, such lyrical topics appear to be even shallower than they already are from a neutral point of view.

Avril Lavigne however desperately tries to sound young, dynamic and creative which only works on the surface. The opening ''Cannonball'' is fast and loud and features electronic vocal effects as well as juvenile lyrics. However, Avril Lavigne isn't seventeen years old anymore and the cringe-worthy tune rather makes you think of an adult who misses the good old days and doesn't want to grow up.

The different features on that album aim for the same direction. I'm a big fan of pop punk trio Blink-182 as the band was influential two decades and a half ago and has managed to adapt to the way people are listening to music today. However, the participation of their bassist and singer Mark Hoppus on ''All I Wanted'' is uninspired and rather sounds like a spontaneous jam session than an actual song. This might perhaps qualify for the playlist of a kids' birthday party but not for an album by an artist that claims to take herself seriously.

Essentially, you only get three types of songs on this album. First of all, we have repetitive heartfelt ballads dealing with emotional struggles. Secondly, we have short and angry tunes that discuss the complexity of relationships. Thirdly and lastly, we have three features that attempt to explore rap and punk rock territories. However, this diversity on paper ends up being sonic mush that somehow all sounds dated and the same.

At the end of the day, listeners will realize that love doesn't suck but that Avril Lavigne's new album sadly does. Love Sux is a shallow pop rock album without any memorable elements or redeeming values. Avril Lavigne's first two records had their reasons to be even though the projected image back then turned out to be fake. Everything she has been releasing in the past fifteen years however has been underwhelming and ultimately forgettable and one simply can't see things turning around at this point. It might not even matter at this point anymore, since Avril Lavigne has already become a part of the rich and the famous that she initially contrasted early in her career. From that perspective, her image and music go hand in hand with Good Charlotte.

Final Rating: 30%