Rating: NN
Divorcees Avril Lavigne and Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley have conspired to flood the market with their angsty pop punk this month, releasing new albums within weeks of each other. It wouldn’t be a stretch to infer that Lavigne’s farewell-to-love songs are about Whibley and that the heartachey rock tunes on Screaming Bloody Murder are directed at Lavigne. Sadly, this isn’t as juicy as it sounds.
Whibley’s lyrics are as innocuous as greeting cards, resulting in plodding rock ballads like What Am I To Say, which could as easily be about a two-week high school fling as a former marriage. These moaning mid-tempo rockers span an exhaustive 50 minutes, leaving you fondly reminiscing about the days when the Ajax rockers had a wry, Canadian sense of humour. They’re still making forays into metal (Crash), but most Sum fans will agree that the band just hasn’t been the same since guitarist Brownsound left town.
Top track: Screaming Bloody Murder
