My thoughts on ''Avril Lavigne'' and ''Britney Jean''

Avril Lavigne has recently released a self-titled studio album.  It is a great improvement on her previous album, Goodbye Lullaby (2011), but still fairly keeping to her image as the rebellious "teen", as signified in her music video for "Here's to Never Growing Up" where she imitates some scenes from her very first music video, "Complicated".

She's really pushing towards the edge with those raccoon-in-a-water-park eyes isn't she?

"Rock N Roll" is definitely the best track to sing along to, provided it's not the clean version of course.  "Let Me Go" is a lovely ballad performed together with Chad Kroeger; Avril really shows off her singing ability on this track.  "Hello Kitty" is obviously a tribute to her Japanese fans where she starts off with minna saiko arigatou, k-k-kawaii alternating between rap, pop and even dubstep.  This track reminds me of "I Got a Boy" by Girls' Generation where they successfully attempt the same in Korean.  "Bad Girl" is a great rock song to bang your head to, it also features Marilyn Manson making it sound even more eerie. The Japanese edition also has great cover versions for "How You Remind Me" (by Chad Kroeger) and "Bad Reputation" (by Joan Jett), give those a listen too.

Meanwhile, the "princess of pop", Britney Spears has also released an (almost) self-titled album, Britney Jean (her middle name is Jean).  I've just listened to the whole album and I can conclude this is not her best work.  The first single off the album, released way back in September, "Work Bitch", was initially an ear worm to me.  But when the music video got released, I immediately changed course.

Britney has looked pretty much the same for the past ten years (if you ignore her meltdown in '07)

"Perfume" is kinda meh.  A slow ballad ruined by her voice that sounds like a monotonous chicken with a cold.  Besides the lead single, the only track worthy to be mentioned is the first track, "Alien".  I think this song has single potential and it's actually musically superior to "Work Bitch". Not too much dubstep and an awesome hook.  

There's only one more thing I'd like to mention.  I have noticed a lot of similarities in the background dubstep of "Now That I Found You" (deluxe version bonus track) with Avicii's "Wake Me Up". I don't know if it was sampled, but it sure as heck sounds very similar.