Avril Lavigne”s new single, “Here”s To Never Growing Up” may reference Radiohead in its first line, but the act it most recalls is Ke$ha. The sing-songy track, built around a big, kick-drum stomp, sounds like a cross between the “Tik-Tok” singer and the arena hands-in-the-air, acoustic-guitar-strumming, simple-minded tunes crafted by Nickelback”s leader, Chad Kroeger, who just happens to be a co-writer on the song and Lavigne”s fiance. Throw in a little dose of “Girlfriend’s” attitude and call it a day.
With lines like “we”ll be running down the street yelling kiss my HEY/We”ll be like, ‘yeah, whatever,’ we”re still living like that,” the song is an aptly-titled salute to staying forever young (so much so that one cover of the single features Lavigne holding a teddy bear).
Lavigne has always had an annoyingly mannered delivery, but it reaches new heights on “Growing Up,” “boom” sounds like “bim,” and when she sings, “This is who we are,” you”ll swear you fell into a vat of Ke$ha”s “We R Who We R.”
[More after the jump…]
You may find yourself begrudgingly clapping your hands and swaying to the generic “Here”s To Never Growing Up,” but you won”t like yourself for doing so. It feels like it was crafted in some pop lab as “the song” that will get Lavigne back on the charts. The tune is the first track from her forthcoming fifth studio album and her first for Epic.
A lyric video crafted from photos submitted by fans debuted on Vevo today.