For more than two decades, Avril Lavigne has been a purveyor of punk-flavored pop. Could she make it any more obvious? The answer is yes: ahead of a summer tour, she's releasing her first, career-spanning greatest hits album.
The 20-track set hits stores June 21, smack in the middle of a global trek that kicks off tomorrow at Texas' Ford Center at the Star and stretches through September, making stops across North America and Europe (including festival stops at Pinkpop, Glastonbury and others). Though there are no new tracks on the set, all seven of her studio albums are represented, and one of the songs - the Yungblud collaboration "I'm a Mess," featured on the digital deluxe edition of her 2022 album Love Sux - makes its physical debut here. The packaging will include new photos and a message from the singer.
Raised in the small town of Napanee, Ontario, Canada, Avril slammed onto the scene in 2002 with Let Go. Though marketed as an antidote of sorts to teen pop singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera - any MTV viewer doubtlessly remembers her jet-black eyeliner and necktie-and-tank top fashions - the songs fit extremely well on Top 40 radio, evoking the polished pop-punk of Green Day or Blink-182. Lavigne collaborated with the writer/producer team The Matrix (Lauren Christy, Scott Spock and Graham Edwards) for five tracks, including the U.S. Top 10 hits "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm with You," which helped the album become the best-selling album of this century by a Canadian.
Lavigne went from strength to strength over the next decade, notching hits like "My Happy Ending," "Nobody's Home," the chart-topping "Girlfriend," "What the Hell" and "Here's to Never Growing Up." She co-wrote the smash hit "Breakaway" for Kelly Clarkson (belatedly covering it for a 20th anniversary reissue of Let Go in 2022), became an Internet meme thanks to a 2003 mispronunciation of David Bowie's name and a bizarre hoax claiming she'd been replaced by a body double a la Paul McCartney, and had two high-profile marriages to Canadian musicians (Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback). After a hiatus of several years (and a quiet battle with Lyme disease), Lavigne re-emerged as a sort-of elder stateswoman of pop-punk on the albums Head Above Water (2019) and Love Sux (2022), the latter featuring collaborations with rap-rocker Machine Gun Kelly, alternative artist Blackbear and Blink-182 singer/bassist Mark Hoppus.
Avril's Greatest Hits will be available on CD or double vinyl, with a neon green variant sold exclusively at Target. The pre-order links are below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Greatest Hits (RCA/Legacy, 2024)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Target (neon green)
- Sk8er Boi
- Girlfriend
- What the Hell
- Complicated
- Don't Tell Me
- I'm a Mess (with Yungblud)
- He Wasn't
- Losing Grip
- My Happy Ending
- Bite Me
- Nobody's Home
- I'm with You
- When You're Gone
- Bois Lie (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)
- Smile
- Love It When You Hate Me (with Blackbear)
- Rock N Roll
- Here's to Never Growing Up
- Keep Holding On
- Head Above Water
Tracks 1, 4, 8 and 12 from Let Go - Arista 07822 14740-2, 2002
Tracks 2, 13 and 19 from The Best Damn Thing - RCA 88697 03774-2, 2007
Track 3 and 15 from Goodbye Lullaby - RCA 88697 55870-2, 2011
Tracks 5, 7, 9 and 11 from Under My Skin - Arista/RCA 82876 59774-2, 2004
Track 6 from Love Sux (Deluxe Edition) - DTA/Elektra (no cat. #), 2022
Tracks 10, 14 and 16 from Love Sux - DTA/Elektra 075678637582, 2022
Tracks 17-18 from Avril Lavigne - Epic 88725 49633-2, 2013
Track 20 from Head Above Water - FreeSolo Music/Vector Recordings/BMG 538441782, 2019
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