Avril Lavigne - Smile

This evening, Avril Lavigne's music video for her latest single, Smile, premiered on VEVO. I was not sure what to expect before watching it. The video for What the Hell was a bit over the top but enjoyable nonetheless...if you could ignore the overbearing amount of product placements. Smile took a different approach. The only product placement I could find was "Abbey Dawn" spray painted on the wall to advertise her clothing line. If there were others, I was too mesmerized by Lavigne to notice.

Smile was an excellent choice for her second single. The album Goodbye Lullaby offers many sensitive, slower tracks which are excellent but not what her fan base has come to expect from the punk rock diva. Avril is one of those artists you either love or hate. The ones who previously hated her, for the most part, have adapted a different view of her after the release of the latest album. As she matures, Lavigne exhibits this through her music and I applaud her for doing so.

Smile is a mixture of an amazing love song that takes a diverse approach fused with Avril's usual "I don't give a damn" attitude. The latter half of that shows with her lines "You know that I'm a crazy bitch, I do what I want when I feel like it." I can't count how many times I have seen this line plastered on statuses across the Facebook world...but I'm not complaining since I'm one of the ones who posted it.

The video was relatively simple, featuring Lavigne rocking out in a sprayed painted white room and walking around collecting red glass pieces that, once Lavigne removes them, allows the person formerly in possession of the shards to smile. I was very impressed with the video. Avril is incredibly pretty and has such a likable personality. I love the imagery the director used with the shards of glass and how eventually, once Avril has collected them all, they form a heart. I also love the green in her hair. During The Best Damn Thing era, she constantly used that pink stripe in her hair. It was cool then, but luckily she ditched it before it became overdone. I love the black and white tone used for her adventure collecting the pieces as well. The video is excellently done and I highly recommend it.

Overall:
Song: 5/5
Video: 5/5