You ever get that feeling when you think someone’s trying to send you a message, but you can’t quite figure out what it is?…
[Video][Website]
[5.85]
Pete Baran: “All my life I’ve been good” — well, there is that track from the Alice In Wonderland 3D soundtrack as exhibit A against this… but let us forget that, because I have always had a soft-spot for Avril’s more upbeat numbers. It is very by the numbers, the sound of five years ago’s teen rebellion heading back to an audience who has probably grown up and out of her.
[6]
Jonathan Bogart: Review watching the video: Remember when the cool thing to do was to disparage Liz Phair for wanting to sound like Avril Lavigne? Funstyle was way more punk than this. [4] Review just listening to it: Sounds terrifically like a Stiff single ca. 1978, with Yachts organ, Rachel Sweet woah-oh-oahs, and Lene Lovich rhythms. Pity about the lyrics, but then it always was. [8] Conclusion:
[6]
Michaelangelo Matos: Like watching a 26-year-old getting Botox.
[2]
Jer Fairall: This is too sad for me to even be all that annoyed with it.
[2]
Al Shipley: Life experience has taught me that 26 isn’t too old too pull off “bratty” convincingly, so I’m not shocked that I enjoy this almost as much as the songs from back when her persona fit her age. But I am a little surprised that the cheerleader chant cadence that so irritated me on “Girlfriend” doesn’t bother a bit here where it’s paired with a ’60s organ riff, a killer bassline and that instantly memorable ascending vocal hook.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: For her newest come back single, Lavigne channels… Mates of State? (For anyone who’s forgotten, that was the early ’00s version of Matt and Kim, except they wore clothes.) Blocky organ blasts are the only new thing here however; for the most part, this is Avril same as she ever was, proving little more than that with almost a decade under her belt, she’s never going to change. “All my life I’ve been good, but now…” proceeds the hook, and I half expected her to finish the thought with “…I’m dating a sk8er boi,” or “…I don’t like your girlfriend.” I suppose Lavigne hasn’t ever been this upfront about wanting to sleep around, even if she does deflect attention from the “I like messing in your bed” bridge with more prominent — and strangely coy — lyrics about “go[ing] out on a million dates.” A 26 year old divorcée who still sings about sex like a teenager has done all the growing up she ever will. It’s cute, I guess.
[6]
David Moore: This is an intensely obnoxious song, but then again I think this post-“Girlfriend” aggressive obnoxiousness suits my vision of what Avril really is far better than when she’s more unintentionally obnoxious. It basically comes down to whether or not the inevitable CAPSLOCK-POP migraine is mitigated by the melodies, and whether or not I add or subtract a point for the annoying grubby organ hook. It is, and I added one.
[8]
Edward Okulicz: That’s got to be the cheapest organ preset (or cheapest actual organ, but more likely the former) ever. And it’s the best thing about this song, because the ascending/descending oh-whoa might be the most annoying thing you’ll hear on radio this year.
[3]
Kat Stevens: The organ riff is so cheap it may well have been bought off Clint Boon at a jumble sale, but Avril continues to mine her nasty playground-taunting streak and I am glad. When she tries singing anything nice through that pointed nose and sharpened teeth it sounds all wrong. A part of me wonders what will happen to Avril’s career when she reaches middle-age, as sneering teenpop is surely an unsustainable long-term theme, (unlike, say, sneering post-punk or sneering rapping). Perhaps she won’t actually ever age at all? Who knows what philosopher’s stones might be lurking in Clint’s garage?
[7]
Martin Skidmore: A superbly catchy good girl gone bad song, and with a great shouty chorus and some almost garagey (the old rock kind) keyboards, this is almost as good as “Girlfriend”. It’s not terribly easy to buy Avril as someone who needs to bust loose, and she does sound a little too nasal on one or two early lines, but generally this is pretty irresistible.
[8]
Alfred Soto: The organ and bridge compensate for the business-as-usual chorus. If she’s confessing that all her life she’s been good, why proffer such well-behaved Avril-angst?
[6]
Josh Love: Avril’s already said the forthcoming album to which “What the Hell” will be awkwardly attached is going to be “mellow” and “deep,” so this might the last opportunity we have to say anything nice about our little mall-punk princess for quite some time. A tadpole couldn’t swim in Lavigne’s idea of depth, but she’s a goddamn genius when it comes to shouty, mean-girl choruses.
[7]
Zach Lyon: It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if every Avril single was just Girlfriend 2.0.
[8]