Avril Lavigne – “Alice” Radio Premier

Published January 27th 2010
Filed under Reviews


Avril Lavigne’s new single Alice (previously titled Alice Underground) for the upcoming Tim Burton movie Alice In Wonderland premiered today on Ryan Seacrest’s Kiis FM radio show.

Alice starts off sounding heavy and quite dark with just a piano and drums. It’s a little surprising when Avril starts singing as her voice is almost unexpected after such a dark introduction. Sonically, it doesn’t sound too distant from her sound on Under My Skin.

Penned solely by Avril herself, lyrically it’s much more mature than most of The Best Damn Thing. However, vocally Avril hasn’t managed to shake off the “shouty” voice which she took on full time during The Best Damn Thing.

The best thirty seconds of the song are when Avril sings:

I found myself in Wonderland
Get back on my feet again
Is this real, is this pretend?
I’ll take a stand until the end

Alice is a clear progression from Under My Skin and a huge progression from the step backwards she took with The Best Damn Thing. Had The Best Damn Thing never happened, Alice is exactly the sound Avril should have returned with after Under My Skin.

You can take a listen to Alice below:

[audio:alice.mp3]

Ke$ha – “Animal” Album Review

Published January 17th 2010
Filed under Reviews


Ke$ha’s debut album was released digitally on January 1st following the release of her debut single TiK ToK which went to number one in several countries.

The album opens with the infectious Your Love Is My Drug which on first listen makes you think you’ve heard the song a thousand times before but somehow it still sounds fresh. While not being incredibly innovative, the chorus will get stuck in your head for hours after listening to it. As far as singles go, it’s definitely a contender but should be a later single in the campaign as it has the same sound as TiK ToK.

If you’ve been to clubs any time in the past few months, then you can’t have missed out on hearing TiK ToK which gets a spin a few times per night. TiK ToK was the perfect debut single for Ke$ha as it established exactly who she is as an artist. Like most of the songs on Animal, TiK ToK is about being drunk at a party.

Throughout the album, it’s hard not to hear similarities to Avril Lavigne’s 2007 effort The Best Damn Thing. Although it’s not surprising since Ke$ha wrote some tracks with Avril which didn’t make the final cut of the album. The sound of The Best Damn Thing isn’t only on the tracks by Dr. Luke, who worked on most of The Best Damn Thing, but also on tracks like D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R. which doesn’t sound too distant from the “rapping” and beat of Avril’s I Don’t Have To Try.

Kiss ‘n’ Tell is a strong contender for the second single. You can instantly tell it’s a Max Martin and Dr. Luke track which echos Katy Perry’s Hot ‘n’ Cold in the chorus sonically and in structure.

The slower songs on the album are quite good and while they show Ke$ha’s diversity between up-tempo and mid-tempo songs, some of them are too similar to each other. In particular, Blind and Dancing With Tears In My Eyes could interchange their choruses and the only thing that would make you realise they weren’t the real chorus of the respective song is the lyrical content. Having said that Blind is the stronger of the two and a contender for the best song on the album.

Other highlights on the album include the title track, album closer Animal and Hungover, both mid-tempo but quite different to the aforementioned with Hungover using the metaphor of a hangover to describe being broken-hearted and Animal which is the perfect way to end the album. The mid-tempo tracks really show an honest side to Ke$ha while still maintaining her party girl image in both Hungover and Dancing With Tears In My Eyes.

Overall Animal is a very nice debut and looks set to be a very successful album campaign.

Avril In Wonderland

Published January 08th 2010
Filed under News


Variety.com has revealed that Avril Lavigne is set to release Alice (Underground) as the lead single from her forthcoming fourth album which she has described as very introspective and stripped down. Alice (Underground) will also serve as the soundtrack single from Tim Burton’s upcoming Disney film Alice In Wonderland.

Variety.com mentions:

Much like penning the opening song for a James Bond film, top-shelf performers savor the opportunity to write a Disney tune. In March, the studio will throw its weight behind Avril Lavigne’s Alice (Underground) from Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.

In a recent interview Avril described her upcoming record:

I started this record off really slow, just writing songs at home on my piano. I didn’t work with a ton of people this time. This record, I just really, really wanted to sing. We started recording each song, some of them, just with acoustic guitar and the vocal and building it from there. It’s stripped down. I love performing that way, so I really felt like it was time to make a record like that. To just make it all about the vocal and the performance, and the vibe, and the emotion.

Alice (Underground) is set for release on March 5th through RCA Records.