Avril Lavigne, the pop-punk princess of the 2000s, reclaimed the crown with her latest single, “Bite Me,” This album is the first glimpse of Lavigne’s upcoming seventh album, which is presently untitled. It’s a glorious return to her angsty rock background.

The 37-year-old singer’s latest album, the pop-rock hit Head Above Water, was just released two years ago, but her comeback to punk has been a long time coming. Let Go (2002), Under My Skin (2004), and The Best Damn Thing (2007), her first three albums, pulsated with the teenage angst and fierce girl power of the ’00s punk scene. Songs like “Sk8er Boi” were instant classics due to their era, when the skate park was the hottest hangout and “rockin’ on MTV” was the supreme power move.

While the Canadian native never entirely discarded her skate punk identity, her later work explored more adult subjects with less energetic spunk that launched her career. Lavigne slowed down her tempo with Head Above Water and instead focused on poetic introspection, ruminating on anything from divorce to misogyny to feeling “stuck” in mid-adulthood. She added piano, violins, and synths to her instrumental background rather than sticking to pop-punk standards like high-tempo hooks and distorted guitar. Although some fans lament the lack of her more edgy original sound, Lavigne has demonstrated that she isn’t hesitant to modify her music to reflect significant changes.
She’s proved herself to be an ever-evolving, flexible artist with each new release, eager to defy expectations with her lyrics and branch out into other genres without ever leaving her origins.

In “Bite Me,” the singer revisits her early themes of adolescent defiance through a nostalgic prism. Although her lyrics have the same attitude as her previous work, it’s evident that she’s speaking from a much more mature and solid place. She’s always the same 17-year-old in an overcoat, but she’s also a heartbreak veteran who’s been tricked too many times to fall for it again.