Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The fact that the one-time rock sex bomb, who'd once cavorted across the world's biggest stages singing such ditties as "Hot" and "The Best Damn Thing", should climb high into America's Christian charts bemused more than one critic, one particular journo heading a piece "Billboard reports that Lyme disease turned Avril Lavigne into a Christian rocker, or something". Her much-reported explanation to the origins of "Head Above Water" went "One night, in bed with her mother and barely able to breathe, Lavigne started to pray. 'I had accepted that I was dying,' she says. 'And I felt in that moment like I was underwater and drowning, and I was trying to come up to gasp for air. And literally under my breath, I was like, "God, help me keep my head above the water".' Lavigne grabbed her phone and opened Notes. She had the beginning of a song, and, if not a way out of the water, at least some light visible above the surface." Where the rock star goes from here is anybody's guess but as Cross Rhythms listeners now know, she released one of the most captivating and haunting singles of last year. A gem of a song which oozes sincerity.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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