Avril Lavigne - Head Above Water

Avril Lavigne
Head Above Water
2019
Spotify

For many millennial Canadian women there is no greater superstar than Avril Lavigne. She arrived just when they were at their angstiest, ready to embrace some punk rock mentalities but certainly not ready to go full punk. Her music was just edgy enough at the beginning to piss off your parents, while still being sold in every record store. Let Go her record from 2002 sent her sky rocketing, but subsequent releases have failed to recreate that success. As long as it has been, her last album was released in 2013, The time has never seemed more ripe for an Avril comeback. She's in a position to make a statement without having to go back to her roots or keep some kind of loyalty to her former sound. If you didn't know this album was from Avril when it came on, I doubt you would be able to figure it out throughout a listen, everything here is pretty generic. Much like Her former Husband's band Nickelback, Avril feels like plug in play. Make a track, give her the lyrics and blam, you've got yourself a record. "Birdie" feels the most like someone is speaking through Avril. The song has no personality and is just another tired old bird in a cage metaphor. "I Fell in Love With the Devil" is another song like that where every line feels like not only a copy of some other song, but also the most generic take you could possibly come up with. She tries to create these builds on almost every song, like each one needs to soar above the skies, but it just starts to feel grating. "Tell Me It's Over" is the same but with this strange touch of doo-wop just to make the album feel more odd.

Things start to get more weird from there. "Dumb Blonde" with Nicki Minaj is a tough one to get through as Arvil tries her hand at some Gwen Stefani circa Love Angel Music Baby drum line style pop. Every song is so fucking sappy, like she is trying to mine every ounce of pain she has ever gone through and putting them into each and every song. Her voice as feels like it doesn't fit this music at times. She has a little bit of a growl, and an edge to her voice that doesn't make it suited for songs Celine Dion would sing, but Avril is going to try anyway. This anthemic pop just falls completely flat across the board. There aren't any sweet songs, any endearing moments or things to make you stand and take notice, instead there are just a bunch of generic songs for generic people. Listen at your own risk because besides the shock at first of "oh shit this is Avril Lavigne" there is just nothing else here. She's back, but man I don't think anyone is going to care.

3.0 out of 10