AVRIL

AVRIL LAVIGNE ONCE HAD TO FIGHT TO BE HEARD. NOW, AS THE UNDISPUTED QUEEN OF POP-PUNK, SHE IS LEADING A NEW GENERATION INTO THE FUTURE.

- Charlie Connell

Avril Lavigne has never pulled her punches. It’s been 20 years since she burst onto the male-dominated pop-punk scene and if you think those two decades mellowed her out you’d be sorely mistaken.

With the very first lyrics of “Bite Me,” her first single from her upcoming seventh studio album, Lavigne announced her presence with authority.

“Hey you, you should’ve known better / Better to fuck with someone like me.”

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Lavigne didn’t go anywhere, of course. She’s been prolific since the release of “Let Go” in 2002, but her new work is a clear return to the pop-punk roots from whence she came. Lavigne has mastered the art of sounding simultaneously dangerous and innocent, a line few other artists would even imagine walking, let alone actually pull off. The track hits like a punch in the face from a loved one—it stings, but you still find yourself longing for the puncher.

“‘Bite Me’ is a little like a love gone wrong, revenge song where I’m taking my life back,” Lavigne says. “When I started making the record I was burnt out on love, I was feeling pretty over it. Although I would say probably only 80 percent of the record follows that theme, there are a couple of love songs.”

Given the abundant negativity surrounding us all—and after these two years you can’t really blame anybody for being negative—there is something particularly refreshing about an album entitled “Love Sucks” that features legitimate love songs. “It’s still hopeful,” Lavigne says. “I am a hopeless romantic and I do love. But when I began the process of this album I was pretty over it.”