A message to our alien overloads: Who are you and what have you done with Avril Lavigne? Last time we checked on our beloved h8r of sk8r bois, she was riding around town handing out middle fingers like Halloween candy with the propulsive pop-rock of “Rock N Roll” and “17.” Clearly she’s been body-snatched for “Hello Kitty,” a sugar-coated dance jam that sounds like Ke$ha covering “Harajuku Girls”-era Gwen Stefani and looks like an extraterrestrial parody of contemporary pop music.
Lavigne must be in on the joke, though — rocking a full-on Skrillex ‘do with some bass drops of her own, Mrs. Nickelback is clearly having more fun than any of us on the track, which features the best Japanese-language intro to a song since “Get Ur Freak On” (also: the worst Japanese-language intro to a song since “Get Ur Freak On”). Irasshaimase!
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com