Avril Lavigne: 'What The Hell'

How old is too old to act the brat? Avril Lavigne may have waved ta-ta to teenagerdom some seven years ago now, she may have done the whole hitchin' 'n' ditchin' thing since then, and she may be about to release album number four, but on this trailer single she's still coming off snottier than a tissue tossed in the bin down the flu clinic.

What's more, she's pulling it off. Anchored by an organ riff straight outta CBGBs, 'What The Hell' is a sweet 'n' sour wad of bubblegum pop-punk on which Avvers has a rum old time playing good girl gone bad. "So what if I go out on a million dates?" she pouts, "You never call or listen to me anyway." Of course, it's nothing she hasn't given us before, and it's not quite as undeniable as 'Girlfriend', so we were fully intending to award four stars, but then the socking great Max Martin/Shellback chorus hit again, and following Avril's terribly tempting lead, we just thought 'What the…'