Favorite Song No. 326: Avril Lavigne – Complicated

Song: Complicated
Artist: Avril Lavigne
Year: 2002
Album: Let Go
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Punk
Pictured: LP
Click Here to Play the Song

If you’re like me, and for your sake I hope you aren’t, but if you are, sometimes you like a song for its meaning even though deep down you know it probably doesn’t mean all the things you want it to mean. Do you get what I mean? A song will have a line or two that really speaks to you, and then some other lines that have nothing to do with anything, and sometimes even clarify the meaning of those other lines in a way that makes them not mean what you hope they mean, so you kind of sweep those under the rug and belt out the part you like, and tell yourself it’s your jam. Maybe it’s wrong to do that? I hope not. I think not. Music exists to speak to the parts of our soul that mere language can’t reach, so of course it’s okay to let a song make you feel a certain way even if the singer intended it to mean something else. Let him have his meaning, you’ve got your own interpretation that works for you. That’s the magic of music– it can mean all things to all people.

I bring this up because I know there is more to this song than lamenting one’s partner making a relationship complicated, but that’s as deep as I need to go here. Now, yes, I know it’s a pop-punk song from a little kid and it isn’t “real” punk and what the hell and all that good stuff, but still. The song is upbeat and catchy, it stands up to repeat listening, and it’s just deep enough that one doesn’t feel dumb listening to it. And now that you have my permission, you too can admit your secret admiration for this song, and add one more arrow to your quiver of melancholy songs, to be aimed judiciously at the heart of your next complicated relationship.