With the beginning the current pop-punk revival we are in, Avril Lavigne is back with Love Sux, the ferocious new offering from the singer drawn from early noughties nostalgia reflected through a modern perspective. But calling it Lavigne’s symbolic return to pop-punk would be an understatement because she seems to have tapped into a creative source that blossomed into an undeniably fun project, especially for those who were teenagers around the time of 2002’s Let Go.
It is certainly a well-timed album, but Lavigne is not bandwagon jumping. She is finally making the album that she wanted to make for a very long time and she sounds like she is having some good, real fun for the first time in ages. The guitars are explosive and racing, the hooks are packed with shout-along catchiness, the drumming is on the speed of light, and Lavigne’s performance is loaded with just enough attitude. The singer is also joined by a robust set of collaborators who have become the front runners of the pop-punk zeitgeist over the years, including Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann, emo-rap/pop punk act Mod Sun, and 2/3 of blink-182: Travis Barker and Mark Hoppus.
Conceptually, the record is about exactly what you think it’s about: “bois” lie and break hearts. Sadly, it is this unfortunate undertone of immaturity that pulls Love Sux away from being pure unadulterated fun. The lyrics such as “Na-na-na, not another breakup / When I think of you, I just wanna throw up” fail to live up to the genre’s new standards and sound a little too silly. “You did me dirty, now I’m gonna live a life without you / I just wrote a song that goes, I don’t give a fuck about ya” is another example of the calibre of lyrics that are on the carpet. But even these moments that make you want to shake your head are so tightly crafted that you just cannot help but beat time. And the formula that Green Day, The Offspring, blink-182 and other likeminded artists used to bring pop-punk to the masses in the late 90s also plays a big part, which she almost never deviates from it. It is an easy but rewarding thrill. While some may argue that the Travis Barker-ification of modern pop-punk has uniformed the genre, which is a valid point, but the albums like Love Sux showcase that when the artist has their own distinctive spark, Barker’s influence definitely becomes a useful tool rather than not a heavy-handed factor. Generally, Lavigne and her collaborators work great as a team and keep the energy flow with veracity, especially when we hear them blend tempos and speed. However, these balanced transitions do not mirror with “Bois Lie.” Machine Gun Kelly’s recent embrace of pop-punk largely encapsulated an atrocious, dated sound, and that certainly reflects in both effort and chemistry on the track. There is minimal depth and the emotional delivery is lackluster. Fortunately, putting it into a flow with the rest of the album stipends the smooth progression. From the candy-coated rippers designed to get massive crowds screaming like “Cannonball” and “Bite Me,” to the driven love tracks swarming with emotions like “Kiss Me Like The World Is Ending” and “Dare To Love Me,” Lavigne is once again at her best and continues to prove her chops across the album.
Because of its overt nostalgia, Love Sux is unlikely to have the same impact as a genre-defining album like Let Go, but even if nothing here ever gets as big, the album succeeds in its duty: it is for dancing round your bedroom, for remembering who you were when you wore oversized camo cargo pants, and for part of us that remains young and rebellious. Avril Lavigne has delivered an engaging body of work, reminding the world how she helped shape so much of the culture.
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