Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing

In two years this album will be ten years old. That's unbelievable to me. I remember being in sixth grade and having my friend show me the song "Girlfriend" and it becoming very popular among our circle of friends. Interestingly enough even though that song was popular with me when I was younger, I've never actually listened to this album before today. I've heard all of the singles from it and "The Best Damn Thing", but I haven't listened to any of the other album tracks. So this will be fun.

Track #1, Girlfriend: Who else remembers the versions with all the different languages? I do. I remember listening to Open House Party one night and hearing that and being so confused xD Now, this song is no masterpiece. In fact it's probably one of the most cheesy songs I know. However, it's so great in it's way. I love how it doesn't even try to be a serious song. It's the middle school girl in all of us. 5/5.

Track #2, I Can Do Better: The lyrics of this song are still very much in the rebellious teenage vein that Girlfriend is in. The song is just okay to me. She's done the theme multiple times before and has done it better on her earlier albums. It's a fun song and all, but at this point in her career, I would have liked to see some growth. There's nothing wrong with releasing songs like Girlfriend and this as they're all in good fun, but one right after the other when you're practically seven years into your career and you're an adult? Wouldn't be my choice. 3.5/5.

Track #3, Runaway: Maybe I shouldn't focus on lyrics when I listen to Avril's music. I would never have a great deal of good things to say. Much like the first two songs, this still seems immature for her. It's not quite as bad lyrically as I Can Do Better, but still. I enjoy the song as a whole much more than the previous song though. Well, ok, I'll look at it like this. If she's going for the stereotypical rebellious teen lyrics, she's absolutely nailing it. 3.5/5.

Track #4, The Best Damn Thing: And here's where I wonder how I can be such a hypocrite. Ok, maybe not a hypocrite, because I believe that this song's lyrics are just as immature has the earlier songs, but I still really this song....it's from my young teen years and I loved it then so it's kind of got a sentimental factor to it. I can at least say that the annoying cheerleader-esque bridge can go away. 4.5/5.

Track #5, When You're Gone: The lyrics of this aren't much better than the earlier songs, but it certainly is an improvement. Also, the tone of the song makes it feel more mature. Like I said before, my problem with Avril's music isn't so much that the lyrics can be immature, but more with issues of the music. If she had more songs like this between songs like Girlfriend and I Can Do Better it wouldn't be so grating. 4.5/5.

Track #6, Everything Back But You: Oh man the beginning....well the mood from the last song didn't last too long. I know people were complaining about Avril's newest album not being mature, but it's MILES better than what this album is. This is just....no. This should have been on her first album, not her third....especially because Under My Skin was more mature lyrically than this. I've been able to look past the lyrics to like the song for everything so far but this one is ridiculously cringe worthy. Ouch. 2.5/5.

Track #7, Hot: I remember never liking this song in the past. Don't remember why, but I'm curious if I still feel the same way now. Well, I like it more now and it doesn't have that super annoying teen drama feel to it. It sounds really familiar as a song though. I'm thinking Kelly Clarkson? Maybe from her All I Ever Wanted era? Can't tell. I'm not sure why I hated this. It's not horrible at all. 4/5.

Track #8, Innocence: Wow the lyrics to this are completely different than I was expecting. I like this. I have a feeling the second half of this album is going to be a lot better than the first. This is closer to the Avril we have now and is a nice progression from the rebellious teen image. 4/5.

Track #9, I Don't Have To Try: The song title doesn't give me much hope. Yeah, I was right. Avril, I don't care that you don't care, this song is bad lyrically. I wouldn't be so harsh on the lyrics of this album if it was her first album, if she wasn't an adult when this was released, if her previous album wasn't much better lyrically, and if there was only a handful of songs that were like this. A whole album of them? No. Just no. There comes a time when you have to grow up, whether you like it or not. Glad that her newer albums have begun to embrace that. Seriously wondering if she wanted to release this or if her label was trying to cash in on her "rebellious teen girl" image. Like I said earlier, there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a song like Girlfriend, it's all just fun. But attempting to put together a whole album of Girlfriends? You should just stick to being a singles artist if you go through with that plan. 2.5/5.

Track #10: One Of Those Girls: Man this sounds like a Disney song. Which is actually kind of a compliment for this album. The lyrics aren't as horrifically bad as the track before. It really seems like it would fit better on Let Go though. It's much less pop than other songs on the album. 3.5/5.

Track #11, Contagious: So there is a little bit of a heightening in quality towards the end of the standard album? Interesting. Again, like the song above, the lyrics are still kind of immature, but it's not the type of immature that makes you want to throw the CD out of the airlock. I'm kind of enjoying this one. It's catchy. 4/5.

Track #12, Keep Holding On: I adore this song. One of her best really. It's too bad it's stuck on such a mediocre record. 5/5.

Track #13, Alone: One of the two songs on the limited edition of the album. This is nothing like I was expecting. I was hoping for something a little more personal/emotional like some songs from Under Your Skin. I don't know why I expected that, considering the rest of the album. It's a very average song. Would have preferred it in the place of some songs on the standard though. 3.5/5.

Alone:

Track #14, I Will Be: Another song from the limited edition. If you've never heard it and are wondering why it sounds so familiar it's because Leona Lewis released it as a single a few years back. Now THIS is what I would expect from Avril at this stage of her career. I understand why it went to Leona/is just a bonus track. It doesn't fit Avril's "image" at this point....which is so sad. Would've made a wonderful single. 4.5/5.

I Will Be:

The Best Damn Thing (Album audio)

Spotify Link

I have no idea why Spotify doesn't have an embed option anymore....that's just stupid. I'll have to make an album playlist on YouTube & link it when I have time.

I'm honestly not sure what I was expecting from this album, but whatever it was I sure didn't get it. Even though it doesn't seem like it from this, I do like Avril a lot, which is why I'm being so harsh on this album. Out of her albums I've heard so far (haven't listened to Goodbye Lullaby in full yet), this is absolutely the worst. I'm very disappointed. 3/5.

84LY - Girls Secret Party

I'm pretty sure that I posted on this CD last time too, but I don't really remember. I really don't have any particular interest in this group. I bought the CD cheap from one of YesAsia's sales. All I really know about the group is that they haven't released anything else since this album. If I were to guess, they have disbanded.

Track #1, 84LY Style: I don't get why K-pop groups make intros seem like actual songs. It's so awful. You get into it and then it ends. Prime example: Sistar's Here We Come. I'm forever bitter that it's not an actual song. 84LY's intro is much more "intro-like". Not particularly interesting.

Track #2, Girl Talk: This is the main song of the mini album. Not a big fan of the chanting of "this is 84LY Style", but for a really unknown "indie" (I realize this isn't the correct terminology here, but I don't know how else to describe what's in my head.) group, it's pretty good. The vocals are a little over-autotuned, but the music sounds well produced enough. 4/5.

Track #3, Pride: I don't think this is better than Girl Talk, but I do think it would have made for a better first single for promotion. It has less autotune, and it seems like a song that is more mainstream. They could have done a cute music video for it and maybe they could have gotten some attention. The song is very catchy as well which would have helped. 4/5.

Track #4, Papillion: Butterfly: My favorite of the three songs. It's a little over-autotuned in some parts like in Girl Talk, but I think it takes the best parts of that song and Pride and mashes it into this song. It's not super special, it's your typical K-pop song from 2012, but I find it to be very high quality for a very unknown new group from a small company. 5/5.

Track #5, Girl Talk Instrumental: Just the instrumental. Eh.

84LY - Girls Secret Party (Audio only):

For a debut from a group from a small company, it's actually pretty strong. It's sad that they didn't at least release one more song. They had quite a bit of potential. 4/5.

AKB48 Team Surprise - Sono Mama de

The third single from Team Surprise's first stage, Juuryoku Sympathy. It features members Tomomi Itano, Aki Takajo, and Yui Yokoyama.

I really don't care much for this song. Their vocals are incredibly grating and the music doesn't fit the vocals at all. The most annoying thing about this song though is that even though it's not good, it's a bit of an earworm. Whenever I read anything about it, the "sono mama de kawaranaide" part from the chorus runs through my head. It's annoying. The video doesn't really help the song either. It's got the whole "street" theme to it & it does not fit the song AT ALL. The song has Tomomi in it....it should have been closer to a club song than this. 2.5/5.

Sono Mama de MV

Little Mix - Salute

It's too bad that Little Mix isn't really popular in the US. I don't understand why female soloists do so well but female groups flop...even when they're singing the same type of songs. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. This album is a lot different than their first release. Not certain which style I prefer for them.

Track #1, Salute: This song should've been a smash. Sometimes "girl power" songs come off really cheesy and ridiculous but this one is really strong. I like the military theme of it. Perfect album opener. 5/5.

Track #2, Move: Their first single from the album. I'm not sure how it did in their native UK, but I think it could've been at least a moderate hit in the US. This song sounds a lot like the direction that Fifth Harmony is going in now, pop music with some urban flavor. The song's great to dance to. 5/5.

Track #3, Little Me: The lyrics to this song are what really struck me more than anything else about it. Sure, it's sung well and the music itself is very appealing for a ballad, but the lyrics truly make the song. To me, it doesn't feel like your typical "love yourself" anthem. It hits a little deeper than that. 5/5.

Track #4, Nothing Feels Like You: You'd think with the way I've been rating this album so far it's the perfect CD. That's not the case. The first three songs are just incredibly strong. This song certainly isn't as strong as the first three, but it's still good. It takes the urban-influenced pop sound from Move but not the happy, danceable feeling. The structure of the vocals of the song are nice. I don't think that the instrumental would sound nearly as good without the way the vocals are arranged. 4/5.

Track #5, Towers: Another ballad. This one although sung very well, is kind of boring. I want to care more about it because the vocals are great and the violins in the song are pretty, but it just doesn't do anything for me. The verses really remind me of a song I've heard before too...pretty sure it was something from Disney Channel. Not sure if that's good or bad. 3/5.

Track #6, Competition: When I first was listening to this song, I got a totally different meaning out of it than the lyrics intend xD I was thinking it was about them liking the competition when the girls are actually telling him to stop being so annoying. I felt pretty stupid when I actually thought about it haha. The vocals at the end of the choruses make this one of the best songs on the album for me. Would have made a good single. 5/5.

Track #7, These Four Walls: Their vocals are nice in the song, but these type of ballads don't really do anything for me. If the chorus just picked up a little more it'd be a much more memorable song. 3/5.

Track #8, About The Boy: I had read somewhere before that Little Mix's new direction in this album was reminiscent of Destiny's Child and other late 90s to early 2000s girl groups. To me, most of the songs don't feel like that, but this one certainly does feel like an updated version of music from then. It's a nice enough song, but not really my style. Never have been a big fan of the late 90s music style beyond a few songs. 3.5/5.

Track #9, Boy: It bothers me that there are three songs on this album with the word "boy" in it. What's worse, they stuck two of them right next to each other. Now this one sounds like it would fit perfectly on a Destiny's Child album. In fact, it sounds very similar to that one song of there's that I can't remember the name of. Again, not really my type of song. It's sung nicely though. 3.5/5.

Track #10, Good Enough: As much as I have an irrational hate for ballads in general, I adore this song. The lyrics are wonderful, it's sung well, and you can really feel the emotion in their vocals. Absolutely a highlight of the album. 5/5.

Track #11, Mr. Loverboy: "Boy" part three! This is my least favorite of the three boy songs on the album. It's pretty different than the rest of the album in my mind. I think it would have fit better on DNA as it has that funky teen pop feel to it. 3/5.

Track #12, A Different Beat: The end of the standard album. Pretty much a mix of the DNA album style and Salute. It works very well as an album closer, much like Salute being the opener. 4.5/5.

Track #13, See Me Now: The first track from the deluxe version. Reminds me a lot of Stereo Soldier from their first album. It's a great song. Personally I'd replace Mr. Loverboy with this on the standard. 4/5.

Track #14, They Just Don't Know You: Oh the lyrics of this make me cringe. It sounds like one of those stereotypical teenagers in movies & TV shows that rejects everything everyone is saying about the person they "love" because they're obsessed. It bothers me. The song itself actually sounds quite nice. It's an interesting sound and I'm certain there's another song out there that sounds like it but I can't think of what it could be. 3.5/5.

Track #15, Stand Down: So I avoided listening to this song for the longest time because when I first heard it I heard the whole "Daddy said..." line as something TOTALLY different and it really bothered me. Now that I'm sitting here listening with a much better pair of headphones I feel silly for thinking what I had thought....because if it did say what I thought it did I'm positive I would have read about it somewhere xD Ignoring all of that, this song is really good. It should be on the standard definitely. Would have made a good single. 4.5/5.

Track #16: Little Me (Unplugged): Just an acoustic version.

Track #17: Une Autre Personne: This song is only on the French version of the album. So I just heard about this track's existence today from looking at the tracklist on Wikipedia to make sure I didn't miss any song. From what I can see, the song is actually by a French singer named Tal and Little Mix is only featured. I tried to find out if this was originally a Tal song or if it was done special for this album but I couldn't find that information. I know almost no French so I don't know what's being said, but the song is okay. I don't have a strong opinion either way for it. The chorus is nice, but the verses don't seem to fit with the music. It also doesn't help that when they sing "Je Suis Une Autre Personne" I hear "[French words] Pants on!" xD 3/5.

Une Autre Personne (Audio Only):

Salute album (Audio):

Personally, I believe their first album is better as a whole, while this one has stronger single tracks. I've heard that they're back in the studio recording for their third album so I'm definitely looking forward to that! 4/5.

Song Recommendations (March 4, 2015 Edition)

The ice in this area ended up cancelling all of my classes today so I have a little more time to write stuff (although I should really be studying for an exam tomorrow but whatever.). I like doing these recommendation posts a lot. I hope those that read them like it too. Makes it easier to maybe find something new than my usual posts.

Alyson Stoner - Beat The System

I've really been enjoying this song today. The lyrics are wonderful. She should be as big as Demi & Selena now tbh.

Zedd - I Want You To Know (ft. Selena Gomez)

Yeah it's generic blah blah blah. But it's GOOD. Like beyond good.

After School - Triangle

After School's first Japanese album was wonderful so I don't know why it took me until this week to listen to their second one. The album's good but this is my standout track from it.

Lovelyz - Hi~

K-pop's been very meh for the past few years. Not a very huge fan of this style, but I can't stop listening to this song. I guess that's a good thing right?

Jeanne Maria - Kindan no Suites

I really hope I romanized that title right....sometimes Google Translate doesn't do that properly xD. Saw this MV on H!O. I really love the general idol thread there & I'm thankful for the people that post there cause I've found some really great songs on that board. Wasn't certain I liked this at first but I think it's pretty darn great for an indie? idol group.

Enjoy!

S/mileage - Aa, Susukino/Chikyuu wa Kyou mo Ai wo Hagukumu

More S/mileage! Really excited to talk about this one because it contains my all time favorite S/mileage song. This is also their final release as S/mileage, as they now go by Angerme and have added three members.

The first A-side of the single is Aa, Susukino. I didn't think much of this song at first. It wasn't as interesting as the other H!P songs coming out around the same time to me. Listening to it more has made me like it though. It sounds like the perfect mix of Platinum Era Musume and the new EDM direction of H!P. I'd be okay with this style of music being used more. Still not fond of the talking bits (mainly because I just don't care for the break in singing like that in any song), but it's not as disjointed as some other songs. I have to give H!P major props for this song's video. It's nothing more than the usual dance shot & closeups, but the setting of the song was just perfect. Can't imagine how expensive it has to be to rent out an airport for a video shooting. It goes to show that even the most conventional videos can be impressive with the proper setting. 4.5/5.

Aa Susukino MV:

The secondary A-side is Chikyuu wa Kyou mo Ai wo Hagukumu. Aka the best song S/mileage ever did....perhaps one of the best H!P songs ever. Last year was ridiculously strong for the H!P groups in terms of musical quality. MM seemed to be the only group that didn't have that besides their album & Toki Sora. This is J-pop-EDM done right. I really like the music video for this too. It has a very Mass Effect feel to it....probably just because I'm writing this while playing the third one & the globe lights remind me of the star in the system I was just in xD. Joking aside, this video made me like Ayaka. I never hated her, but I couldn't stand her voice so I tried to ignore her existence. She's so gorgeous and charismatic in this video though. It's hard to not focus on her. Not to mention that I've really seen an improvement in her vocals recently too. 5/5.

Chikyuu wa Kyou mo Ai wo Hagukumu MV:

So far, this is definitely my favorite release from S/mileage/Angerme. The release seems like it would work for the majority of H!P fans, something a little more Platinum era & something a little more EDM. I hope that they'll do another release like this in the future, although now that they're Angerme I don't know what direction they'll be headed in. If they stay in the Taiki Bansei/Otome route then they're good. 4.5/5.

S/mileage - Atarashii Watashi ni Nare!/Yattaruchan

I'm fairly certain that this was one of the releases that I talked about the last time I had a blog. Still wish I wouldn't have deleted it...then I wouldn't have to type this all over again. Oh well. This is their 18th single and was released in 2013.

The first A-side is Atarashii Watashi ni Nare!. To me this single always represents a clear break in their discography. It comes right after their second album and is along the new mature, electro-ish track that H!P was headed in in 2013. S/mileage was probably my least favorite H!P group until the release of their second album. I wasn't into the more "idol-y" songs that they put out except for a few so I just didn't pay much attention to them. After they started releasing music like this, I started paying more attention. Out of all their "mature" songs, I'd say this one has the most old S/mileage feel to it. I'm not too fond of the music video for this song though. The shadowy shots aren't done very well, the outfits are meh at best, and the set is just white. It's a little hard to look at because of how bright it is. A little splash of color (or at the very least a curtain...) would have made it better. I do enjoy the shots of them holding the lyrics and the dance though. 4/5.

Atarashii Watashi ni Nare MV:

The second A-side is Yattaruchan. This is one of those crazy genki S/mileage tracks, much like Yume Miru & Uchouten Love. If you're going to do a crazy idol song, this is how you do it and make it good. Also, Meimi's voice.....WOW. I say it everytime she sings in a song, but HER VOICE. She's easily one of the best vocalists in H!P, maybe even the best....not sure if Airi beat her or not. Would need to hear them sing together in a concert. The video is also a perfect example of a good video done on a low budget/H!P normal sets. It's not so much the set as it is what you do with the set. Atarashii is the prime example of what not to do, this is a good example of what exactly you should do. The girls shine in this video. 5/5.

Yattaruchan MV:

S/mileage really has improved since this single. It's a great single and yet the ones they released after this are even better. It'll be interested to see how Angerme plays out. Taiki & Otome were fantastic starts so I hope they can keep that momentum. I don't want to see them end up sadly generic or sounding too much like non-H!P idols. That takes all the fun out of H!P. 4.5/5.