"The Best Damn Thing" by Avril Lavigne; RCA

"Mickey" was a No. 1 hit for Toni Basil in 1982; now Avril Lavigne has repackaged it for a younger generation.

Lavigne's version is called "Girlfriend," but with the same beat and lyrical cadence, she's not fooling anyone. Like Basil's tune, "Girlfriend" is relentlessly catchy, if a tad more surly as Lavigne sneers, "Hey, you, I don't like your girlfriend." Among her rival's chief flaws: She's "like, so whatever."

Although Lavigne is 22 now, her constituency remains reformed shin-kickers with crushes on the cute, slightly dim boy in homeroom.

That poor kid can't catch a break: She hates him on "I Can Do Better," pines for him on "When You're Gone" and proclaims his sweetness on the gushy power-ballad "Hot."

The songwriting is weaker than on her past two albums, though there are plenty of sugary pop hooks and a slick, punked-up guitar sound. "Girlfriend" isn't the only musical homage: Thumpy beats on the title track mimic any number of Black Eyed Peas tunes, and the careening guitars on "Everything Back But You" would have fit on "American Idiot" if Green Day had been railing at boys instead of politicians.

Still, evoking other people's chart-topping tunes is a savvy bid to duplicate Lavigne's earlier commercial success, even if "The Best Damn Thing" is, like, so whatever.

— Eric R. Danton, Hartford (Conn.) Courant

"Favourite Worst Nightmare" by Arctic Monkeys; Domino

Overhyped to overnight success in its native England, the cheeky rock quartet racked up the biggest-selling debut in U.K. history with last year's "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not." The Arctic Monkeys received a cooler reception in the U.S., but not because their music lacked the pizzazz to match the buzz.

With the surprise factor gone, "Nightmare" can't quite live up to the splash of its predecessor, yet it quakes and shimmers just as vividly with hard-charging guitars, stinging wit and tireless thrust on a dozen tracks that rush by in roughly 40 minutes. On song after song, hyperactive cleverness and sonic verve intersect in heady tunes spiked with unexpected touches from ska and metal to funk and psychedelia.

Alex Turner's signature insolence gets tiresome in spots, so it's encouraging to discover wisdom, empathy and vulnerability creeping into his poetic gambols, whether he's mocking hipsters who revere a past they never experienced on "Old Yellow Bricks" or gently unveiling the gullibility of new romance in the ballad "Only Ones Who Know." With this follow-up, the Monkeys solidify their status as the band to beat in the flowering British rock scene. And The Strokes might want to watch their rear view.

— Edna Gundersen, USA Today

"Dignity" by Hilary Duff; Hollywood

Disney darling, 19-year-old Hilary Duff has a message for her rehab-hopping, self-absorbed, famous-for-being famous peers: Shape up. Show some dignity.

Speculation is rife that the subject of her anger in songs like the title track and "Gypsy Woman" is none other than Nicole Richie, who may have hooked up with Duff's ex-boyfriend Joel Madden of the rock band Good Charlotte. Duff has denied Richie is the subject but the speculation is intriguing for gossipteers. When Duff worries "Where's your dignity/I think you lost it in the Hollywood hills," it's easy to insert the names Britney, Paris or Lindsay into the equation. The unnamed source of Duff's tart tongue would "show up to the opening of an envelope," wears Jimmy Choo shoes and "enjoyed the fame bringin' down the family name."

There's a lot of sermonizing on "Dignity," which boasts a cover photo featuring a freshly scrubbed Duff ready for her Maybelline ad. Problem is it's all at odds with the off-the-shelf electro pop that permeates the tracks of her dance record. She wants to make an album for the clubs but then complains about what she sees there.

— Howard Cohen, McClatchy-Tribune News Service