Avril Lavigne (Expanded Edition)

Mouthing off at the cops, dancing on the bar, drinking down a “bottle of whatever”—Avril Lavigne’s fifth studio album presents a hard-charging rush of defiant, shout-along pop music with plenty of bad-girl edge. Although she offers a little buoyant, synth-driven pop sparkle (“Hello Kitty”, “17”, “Sippin’ on Sunshine”), the majority of Lavigne’s self-titled album blasts along with guitars on 11, impossibly catchy choruses and an unstoppable rage-all-night ethos (“Rock N Roll”, “Here’s to Never Growing Up”, “Bitchin’ Summer”). The album’s two duets offer the greatest emotional extremes: “Let Me Go” is an epic, string-adorned power ballad alongside husband (and Nickelback frontman) Chad Kroeger, while “Bad Girl” brings in a growling Marilyn Manson for the album’s raunchiest rocker.