'THE BEST DAMN THING'

'THE BEST DAMN THING'
Avril Lavigne (RCA)
Grade: B
There's the tired sexist joke about men loving it when women get angry. Ugh. But what about when a girl -- a "Sk8er" girl -- grows up to become that woman who's getting steamed?
Now we're talking about Avril Lavigne.
Within three albums she's matured into a piquantly nasty singer without becoming shrill or dully turning herself over to Janet-style lasciviousness. Or worse: Britney-like self-abuse.
Think the f-bomb has lost its power to shock? Hear it spit from Lavigne's mouth as she rowdily waltzes through the hand-clap rhythms and crabby guitars of "Girlfriend."
Sure, Avril appropriates Rancid-esque rage with a sugary power-pop coating on "Everything Back but You" and "I Can Do Better." But from the wintry discontent of her lyrics, this girl isn't sweet. Not on you, chum.
She may have a soft spot for cowriters/producers "Doctor" Luke Gottwald and Butch Walker, who help push Lavigne to Bic-lighting power-ballad heights on "When You're Gone."
But if Miss Thing is as bugged as she sounds throughout the rest of this record, I'd stay vigilant when she flicks her Bic.
--A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer
'WE'LL NEVER TURN BACK'
Mavis Staples (Anti-)
Grade: A
Back in the '60s, Mavis Staples played a point role in the civil rights movement as a member of the Staple Singers. Here the gospel/soul singer revisits "freedom songs" of that era with the help of guitarist-producer Ry Cooder and his usual musical cast (as well as Ladysmith Black Mambazo on three cuts).
"We'll Never Turn Back," however, is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Including a couple of originals and adding new lyrics to such familiar fare as "This Little Light of Mine" and "99 and 1/2," Staples forges a deep connection between then and now. The message is clear: "We need a change now more than ever," she implores on her self-penned "My Own Eyes." From moments of quiet resolve to those of preacherly urgency, she drives that message home with soul-stirring power, turning in one of the best and most impassioned performances of her long and great career.
--Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer
'I'LL SLEEP WHEN YOU'RE DEAD'
EL-P (Definitive Jux)
Grade: B
El Producto never made his brand of eerily atmospheric hip-hop easy.
Funky breaks? El-P's got them. But rather than fill his densely textural walls of sound with sybaritism and singsong lightness, the MC/producer pumped 2002's "Fantastic Damage" full of weirdly fired-up political rants and bleak lyrical abstractions.
What the Diddy?
El-P couldn't even stick to rap's playbook, making 2004's "High Water" an avant-jazz excursion.
El-P may keep on the melodic tip for Sleep -- the cool, brassy "EMG," the hard-stammering "Dear Sirs." But no one who samples "Twin Peaks" while invoking society's direst straits ("Tasmanian Pain Coaster") is looking to sell ringtones.
Finally. Thankfully.
Though he employs mouthpieces on "Sleep" (miserable Trent Reznor, annoying Cat Power, righteous kids from Mars Volta and TV on the Radio), El-P does it best by his lonesome or with his taut Def Jux crew. Yes, "The Overly Dramatic Truth" is as lame as its title. But with the rapper Cage, EL-P takes to doomsday on "Habeas Corpses" with a mordant romanticism to rival Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
--A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer