It’s been almost 2 months since Avril Lavigne released her Punk Rock album ‘Love Sux’ and she probably couldn’t have done it without leaving her Sony label.
I was fascinated by reports and rumours that the Canadian “Skater Boi” singer was often struggling with her creative freedom on her previous label (Sony Interscope). It made me wonder at one point “will she ever go back to the rockier times or will this only happen if she leaves Sony?”. Now, Avril has a more independent label which explains her new found identity, but •love sux• is still very different from her debut album.
So it really did have to come to Avril leaving her huge label in order to rock out with real drums and enthusiastic collaborations that feel real and authentic on Love Sux.
The tracks are straightforward Rock Punk about heartache, breakups and there’s a roughness to the lyrics about toxic behaviour in relationships but there’s also a sense of humour, which nowadays is a great way to lighten up the mood. A good move in my opinion since things are rather tense in the world right now.
“Love it when you hate me” nicely shines a light on irrational behaviours in relationships in a very self aware way, which I found refreshingly funny. “Bite Me” is the typical Avril Break-up song about her having her revenge on her ex, except that this time around, the studio drums really shine through nicely. It just rocks differently to have that live studio drum in these songs.
I think Avril goes excellent with different male singers and that really shines brightly on this record, even though the experience seems short lived with a runtime of only 33 minutes, it is catchy and relatable enough for me to revisit the album with its f*ck off attitude and some corny moments here and there. With an album title like “Love Sux” one should dive in not expecting much poetry from the lyrics, because if you do, you will cringe.
Love Sux was originally planned to be a double album, so it seems unclear if we’re just going to hear another record at some point with those songs or if Avril wants to work on new material instead. We shall see/hear in the future!
6.5 OUT OF 10
For now though, Love Sux is refreshing and even though I can live without almost the entire second half of the songs on this record, I am still going to give Avril’s new album 6.5 out of 10 black balloons for taking this new path in her career and hopefully finding new sounds and ways to grow as an artist.