I remember when Head Above Water was released - the great comeback… that, unfortunately, featured far more discussion on how Avril was now loved (Head Above Water) and then hated (I Fell in Love with the Devil) by Christians, how she was “pulling a …
I remember when Head Above Water was released - the great comeback… that, unfortunately, featured far more discussion on how Avril was now loved (Head Above Water) and then hated (I Fell in Love with the Devil) by Christians, how she was “pulling a Kesha”, and so on than anything to do with her battle with Lyme Disease. And, even when they did talk about it, news channels called it a “health scare”, which to me, feels like downplaying things. Like, suffering from a debilitating chronic illness and having to literally fight with your doctors to be heard to the point that you’re ready to die is way more than a “hoo hoo you had a little health scare there didn’t you?” Now, my own issues with chronic illness is definitely coloring my perspective here, but I just really hate that term.
Anyways, this album feels like a proper follow up to Goodbye Lullaby. It doesn’t feel like Avril is trying to “reclaim” anything here or that the label is forcing her to do a bunch of random stuff - which makes sense as this is under a different label group than her earlier works. It also features way more of the growth that you can see starting to blossom in Goodbye Lullaby to the point that this whole album features a very different feel to it than her earlier works, a sense of maturity and depth of life that one would expect to see after someone has faced such a life changing illness/event.
As for the individual songs, anyone who more prefers her non-commercial pop stuff (as I do) will like this album. To me, there are no bad songs here. Sure, they’re not all perfect, but at the same time, a lot of that is simply personal taste. Like, a vocalization that I don’t like might be perfection to someone else. And, there are a lot of different styles on here too, so I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out just for that reason alone.
My personal favorites are Tell Me It’s Over (I adore this song) and Dumb Blonde. Following those two, in no particular order is Head Above Water, Goddess, Souvenir, It Was In Me, Crush, and Bigger Wow. I Fell in Love with the Devil almost fell into that grouping, but I like the first half a lot more than the second. Lastly, Birdie, Love Me Insane, and Warrior are all still good songs, but something had to be at the bottom and I simply preferred the other songs more.
Track Listing:
1. Head Above Water - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKF6ghfcQic
2. Birdie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luuA_-nh1Ww
3. I Fell in Love with the Devil - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIw_e2B0AbE
4. Tell Me It’s Over - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5wseA6HoNs
5. Dumb Blonde (solo version) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZElD69UrVEk
6. It Was in Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53KT5bCn8uA
7. Souvenir - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9giPcpYfVs
8. Crush - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4N-8JhGeuA
9. Goddess - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KINxnEOkWrY
10. Bigger Wow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcblZ8tRIOI
11. Love Me Insane - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5LmldirBCo
12. Warrior - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljVS2c4tTPY
Not Included:
1. Dumb Blonde ft. Nicki Minaj - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC022MwPHKI
2. Head Above Water ft. Travis Clark of We the Kings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr_rYEV53Vo
3. We are Warriors ft. Lindsey Stirling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBk7ONm95Q
