Pop Wars: Avril vs Miranda

While Avril Lavigne unleashes the first single from her long-awaited new album, elsewhere in the US music scene teen pop wannabe Miranda Cosgrove is releasing a reject from the same album as the first single from her own next CD. Let’s see how they compare…

Avril Lavigne – What The Hell
After many years of despising Avril Lavigne, it took about 3 listens to Girlfriend for me to convert to a full-on obsessive. A few months later I had her new album and was playing it relentlessly. That’s what happens when you get Max Martin and Dr Luke on board! With all the rumours about Avril arguing with her label over how the new album should sound, I was expecting it to be a return to Avril’s old self-indulgent ways but I’m very happy with the first single What The Hell. It continues where The Best Damn Thing left off but is an updated version of that sound for 2011. Avril’s high pitched vocals make angry songs sound whiney but happy songs sound utterly ecstatic, which is my absolute favourite thing in pop music. And this one’s got ‘lalala’s too! It’s no surprise the song has shot to the top of the US charts, and it’s brilliant news for me as it hopefully means Avril will be sticking with Max and Luke for the foreseeable future.

Miranda Cosgrove – Dancing Crazy
Even the least musically-inclined person could guess that there was some link between Dancing Crazy and What The Hell, and Miranda’s lucky the song’s coming out at the same time as Avril’s or else everyone would think it was a rip-off. It’s quite possible that Dancing Crazy was left off Avril’s album simply because it’s so similar to What The Hell, especially the intro music. Miranda, star of US kids show iCarly, has so far made a career out of covering Max and Luke’s European hits, including the Sugababes’ About You Now and Stay My Baby by Amy Diamond. Her indistinctive vocals meant her versions couldn’t come close to the originals, so she’s very lucky to finally be given a Max and Luke track of her own… even if it did have to be rejected by someone else first! I’d feel sorry for her, but there’s no need – Dancing Crazy is fantastic and hopefully will elevate her profile enough that she may even get some good songs written especially for her someday.

I can’t decide which one I like best, so I’m putting it to a vote. Would you rather spend your Saturday night dancing crazy or shouting “what the hell!”?