It’s 2018, and Avril Lavigne is still the motherf*ckin princess

After a long hiatus, Avril Lavigne is officially back in the music scene. The Canadian singer just dropped her first single in five years, “Head Above Water,” And what a comeback it is! Twitter is impressed, to say the least.

If you’re a ’90s baby, then chances are, Avril is a quintessential part of your childhood. I remember, every time one of her songs play on the radio or boombox (look it up), my friends and I literally become the kid-turning-up-the-volume meme. Her appeal lies in being different. Clearly, Avril stood out from her contemporaries. She’s a punk-rocker chick with the Green Day-vibe, but she’s actually a pop star, though you can’t really classify her with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, or Hilary Duff—the biggest pop stars of her generation. With her baggy pants, checkered Vans, tie over shirt or tank top (revolutionary), chain loops, and cool pink and green blonde highlights, she was the epitome of cool. I don’t know about you, but man, I wanted to be her. Almost every girl did. As Billboard noted, she “established herself as a voice of empowerment for teenage girls, proving that you can dress, act, and most importantly, feel however you want, and that those instincts are all valid.”

Her new is single sounds great, but nothing beats the classics, if only for their nostalgic quality. To other millennials who can relate, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Sk8er Boi

“Sk8er Boi” is a must in the penultimate Avril playlist, and any 2000’s playlist, for that matter. This was her trademark song back in the day. Personally, I was obsessed with the song’s narrative. “He was a punk / She did ballet / What more can I say,” as one of the greatest punk-love stories go.

 

I’m With You

“I’m With You” is one of her most emotional tracks. It gets pretty raw about loneliness. This is the one you put on when you’re in transit and you’re by the window, and it’s raining. Now, I didn’t have much problems then other than homework and shallow high school drama, but boy, did this song make me feel.Real powerful stuff.

Complicated

In the “Complicated” music video, we see her hanging out with her guy friends, pulling pranks at the mall and the skate park, while she sings about how frustrating posers can be. This angst-filled pop-punk track is a song we can all easily relate to, and it’s so much fun to belt out too. Here’s an idea: play this on your next karaoke sesh with the gang.

My Happy Ending

This is another emotional track meant for every girl whose hearts have been broken. Again, I was but a lil innocent potato, but I felt her “You were everything that I wanted / We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it / And all of the memories, so close to me, just fade away / All this time you were pretending / So much for my happy ending” with such a force. Even someone as cool as Avril gets dumped. Sigh.

Girlfriend

This isn’t my favorite but it’s here because it’s arguably the biggest song of 2007. It was number one across the globe, and remains to be her biggest hit yet. She ditched her all-black look and adapted a style that’s more girly, but her punk attitude remained, and she owned it: “Hell yeah, I’m the motherf*ckin’ princess.”