Blogocentric Formulations

My Happy Ending

"Barrel of Monkeys" 
Day 6





"My Happy Ending"
by Avril Lavigne
from Under My Skin (2004)

This second single off Avril's second album was basically the breakup anthem for my generation for several years. Anytime someone in a relationship broke up, had a bad fight, etc. it was pretty much guaranteed that they were blasting this song in their car or their room for several weeks afterward.

For me, this song is reminiscent of the early 2000s emo/pop punk phase in music where a lot of the love songs were angsty and bittersweet, and this song (and the whole album, in fact) have often been compared to musical artists who have the same general style like Paramore, Evanescence, etc.

Like her song "I'm With You"  from her first album, this was the album from her second that convinced me she was a really, really talented musical artist. She has the pop-punk hits, of course, which are extremely popular and probably what sell most of her albums, but each album also has one of these more thoughtful, contemplative songs on each of her albums too, which show a real depth and sophistication and maturity to her songwriting. And the combination of the two types of songs have been a real recipe for her success over the past twenty years, I think. Because each album contains multitudes, rather than the same flavor of song over and over again.


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