Your Verdict: Quillford Essentials - Week Six

[Quillford]

‘Cough Cough Cough’ *Puts on his best Don LaFontaine voice* “Imagine a world, where music itself has been damaged. Imagine a world where people fight for musical freedom through expression. Imagine earth was that world, and you’d be right! Here, now, at the fortress of solitude people fight the powers of musical oppression and the stains of mediocrity with YOUR VERDICT!”
This week is the sixth week of The Quillford Essentials and so far it’s been a mixed ride. But with this special halfway point it’s going to get even bumpier. I made a promise to Curmudgeon when I started this stint that I would attempt this. Now before I reveal to you anything. I want you to clear your mind, any prejudice, any hatred – ‘let go’.
There is always at least one person you start off hating. Their music, their persona, their everything. But sometimes – that person does something that makes you see there not so bad and you end up either liking them or loving them. I want today to be THAT kind of situation. Today I bring to you, *Sucks in air* *Back to the Don voice* AVRIL LAVINGE.

13 years, 4 albums, 17 singles, Multi Platinum several times. So I find this girl to be like marmite with a lot of people. You will love her or you will hate the woman. If you really are unfamiliar with her she has two phases, her first being a rebel punk rock girl and the latter being a pop punk princess. Either phase she would get the honorary Quill Guy SLAMMED Seal of Approve. Now something that needs to be said I had a major infatuation with Avril 12 years ago when I first discovered her and that’s been pretty consistent. I can however separate my penis from my taste in decent music.
Lavigne’s best album is “let Go” which is indeed her first. But that’s because I believe most of if not all the tracks on there have something to offer to me musically. One drawback is she’s experimenting in her first album and this means that if you’re not in the mood for a heartfelt story of woe and your giving the album a listen through. You may just get one. But fear not, raise up that chin because the very next song will be exactly what ‘with any luck’ you were hoping for. Her second album again is her second best album. Moving more from the lively punk to the troubled young woman and mostly tearful songs of loneliness and misunderstanding – but with that she has better vocals than she did with her first album so if I am in the mood for it I can stick this on and have a good chill out with a beer or whatever.
Now – let’s take a detour away from the official stuff. Avril has B-Sides! Can I get a YEY? No? Didn’t think so but be fooled not, some of these tracks can be even better than what is on her first two albums. Now unfortunately there has been no official album of the unofficial songs so there is some unofficial compilations out there if you fancy giving it a look. I would RECOMMEND these tracks however “Get Over It”, “Daydream”, “The Scientist (ColdPlay Cover)” and “I Don’t Give (Unclean Version)”. One warning however stay the hell away from both her Basket Case and Chop Suey covers that were leaked online. They are by all means terrible and it isn’t pretty.
Finally her last bit on the music industry has been declining, she has now moved to a new sound. She took her rock/punk persona and tweaked it to be a blonde pop punk creation. Easier on the eyes – SO EASY ON THE E... *cough* excuse me. But a little less intriguing musically, I can enjoy it and there are a couple of really good tracks on her third album “The Best Damn Thing” but some of them are even for me – too much. However, take the bad with the good and rejoice as her music video for Hot is by far the sexiest music video I have EVER seen. So she wins an award just for that. Spin on three or so years and she releases “Goodbye Lullaby” her fourth and most likely her last album. Unlike her other three albums this only reached platinum in Japan, everywhere else it didn’t touch anything other than Australia where it got Gold. All her other albums went platinum in both the UK and US. Her first album went plat five times over here, compared to her latest – it’s a shame. GL is a stint of more acoustic, love songs kind of coming from the sadder part of her second album with a hint of “I don’t give a flying fuck anymore because me and my husband (Sum 41 lead singer) are divorced“. Her hit debut song didn’t do so well although again the video was very easy on the eyes with her running around in skimpy underwear and being a slut.

Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the last two albums although it may not sound like it. My bad. It’s just she changed so much I can understand why fans took a massive rage, so I like to prepare people. If you like pop and can get a kick out of it – these albums will be awesome. The songs are catchy and were written from both herself and her former husband and even guest stars Travis Barker from Blink 182 playing in most of the songs. It’s pretty good in all honesty. Best tracks include “Hot” “The Best Damn Thing” “Smile” “What The Hell” “Wish You Were Here” “Alice (Featured and created for the Alice in Wonderland movie)“. I am really looking forward to this week’s comments. So let’s get down to it. Onwards to this week’s featured song.
The following song is probably one her more “angry” songs if you will. I mean angry in the sense she has some OOMF behind it. Anyway, I really like this track because of the fact that it has good lyrics that seem to run smoothly and don’t feel forced. I like it because I can walk to places with this in full blast and it gets me there a bit quicker, I like this because it’s a good rock song. It could of been heavier but I suppose if it was then it wouldn’t be the track that it is. I bring you “Forgotten” from “Under My Skin”

So that it for this week folks and if this didn’t do it for you I will leave you with her two sexy videos for “Hot” and “What The Hell” and a bunch of visual tributes. Who says I don’t provide. See you next week, The Quill Guy.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNND for the wallpaper of my desktop for a while , the best...

[fuckimavorlon]

I for one Quillguy have also felt the decline in Avril Lavigne's music. She once held a place in British pop/rock culture, which she seems to have lost as of late. I for one much prefer her old albums to her recent ones, as that style was more my own taste. And while Avril is indeed a rather sexy woman, she does not float my banana boat if you know what I mean. A good review of a good artist, who Im sure will probably try to alter her musical style in the future to be relevant again.

[Quillford]

"to be relevant again" that made me chuckle somewhat. I can see this desperate almost underfed Avril clawing at a guitar or something saying "make me relevant".

[trashcanman]

Dude, I listen to actual punk music so that shit simply does not rate. Genuine punk music makes mainstream fans run away with their hands over their ears. I have actually seen this happen with my own eyes at Warped Tour and it was GLORIOUS. Hard to make angry music when you don't actually have anything to be angry about, and this little princess was a rich celebrity at what 16? Such hardship. I'm sure she really feels the self-destructive pain of GG Allin and Darby Crash, I can see it in her brand new vintage rock t-shirts and supermodel poses. Anyways, Lavigne is still one of the sexiest pop tarts out there and I really can't take my eyes off of her, so I love her for that at least. But not enough to buy one of her albums. Ever. That song wasn't terrible or anything, but the notion that somebody would think it was punk is more than a little amusing. Allow me these rebuttals:





Oh,and if you could try and use smaller versions of those massive(ly hot) wallpaper pics, I'd appreciate it. They make the thread kind of hard to read. Maybe make a photo gallery thread with less text for those ones or something?

[Quillford]

*Wipes the BURNT dust off his shoulder* Ok, Punk was not the word but she didn't start as pop as she is now. I would have at least put into a pop-rock category. I know very well what Punk is - just bad phrasing I guess. Apologies...

[lemex]

To be honest I've never seen what exactly is so good about Avril aside from the fact that, yes, she is attractive. If you listen to her music critically, honestly, and can take your eyes off her for a minute, you'll find she's pretty mediocre.

I'm sick of tracks having one essentially chorus and that be the only memorable part of the song like 'Girlfriend' or having actually pretty poor lyrics like the stuff on her first album. And nothing is worse than 'pop punk' as it's sometimes called, bands like Fallout Boy, or Blink. 'Pop Punk' is a contradiction in terms, like saying something is 'light dark', and without the subtitle overlap like 'good bad'.

I don't honestly see why Avril is still putting our albums, her chief demographic when she started out isn't really there anymore, it disappeared around 2005. Her riffs and actual chord structures are blandly simple, her lyrics are not anything I'd personally try to memorize, and her voice is passable. In short, I just find her on the lower end of mediocre.

[trashcanman]

I refer to bands like The Ramones, Blink 182, and Green Day as pop punk since they are of and from the punk scene and actually understand the music while using pop melodies to make it more palatable, but with shit like Good Charlotte and Avril out and about the word "punk" really does not apply anymore. Oh, and it's not just you, Quillguy, who uses the word "punk" to describe Lavigne, so don't think that crant was aimed squarely at you. I hear it all the time and it's bullshit. Its like trying to convince people Vanilla Ice was a gangsta from the streets. Pink is actually worse in a way because her music is even poppier and she REALLY tries to convince people she's punk whereas in Lavigne's case she is just ding what her record label tells her to do. I wouldn't kick either out of bed or anything, but any asshole can learn to play punk music if it's who you are and the fact that neither can or will tells the tale far beyond all of the Billy Idol sneers, middle fingers, and mohawks.

[Quillford]

Cold Hearted Hussy. I'm done....







wait... nnnnnow i'm done.

[The Curmudgeon]

Well, kudos to you for attempting it, Quillguy, but you were on a losing battle before you even played the song using the term "punk." It's a depressing state of affairs when this label, alongside rock, can be thrown at anyone who happens to pick up a guitar or wear a faded Zepplin t-shirt.

Hey, as a lifelong fan of Britney Spears, I can be ALL about pop music, and I don't mind some of Avril's songs. Her first album had some great pop tracks on there (Nobody's Fool, for example), but the track you picked is the sort of fake "woe is me" maudlin bullshit I detest.

It pisses me off when Avril Lavigne tries to get credibility and to be taken seriously. You're fucking Avril Lavigne. You get other people to write your songs, play your music and you dress like a slut to appeal to men who wouldn't normally buy your records. And that's fine. But don't expect us to think you're fucking Joni Mitchell.

So yeah, this is a big thumbs down from me, Quillguy. I don't mind Avril, I quite like some of her songs and she is smoking hot, but this song is garbage.

[Quillford]

So I am currently going through all my reviews I have scattered on the web - and posting them to my website *shameless plug* www.KaiShepherd.com and I realised I have incorrectly spelt "Lavigne" at the top of this artcle *facepalm*