Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin
My Thoughts: (Reviewed by K-Billy)
Avril Lavigne probably stands to be the biggest Canadian music artist in the U.S. right now. With her debut cd “Let Go” she shot herself into the forefront of the pop/punk rock genre. Lavigne connected with a young crowd, primarily teenage girls, that enjoyed her girl power message and catchy choruses evident in the immensely popular hit “Complicated.” With he multi platinum success Lavigne now has to face the challenge of the usually inevitable sophomore slump. Considering that her first record was virtually a work of pop genius it surprised many that she would break away from The Matrix writing team who were responsible for penning many of the teen’s biggest hits. Apparently Lavigne was hoping to be taken more seriously as an artist and as a result decided she needed more input in the creative areas of song writing. Unfortunately for Lavigne her new release “Under My Skin” doesn’t work well at being a cohesive and interesting record.
The cd starts off
well enough with down tuned guitars showcasing a harder edge and her voice
sounding a bit more deeper or brooding on the first track “Take Me Away.”
From there she continues in similar fashion up until the new single “Don’t
Tell Me” which reminds one of “Complicated.” However from
there it goes downhill. On the record as a whole Avril Lavigne’s writing
skills are less then steller. The worst example being “He Wasn’t”
which besides being very catchy has some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever
heard, all as shallow as the next for the sole purpose of rhyming with the
line before it. In this respect, Lavigne does much better when she’s
not making a conscious effort to rhyme her lyrics. Many of the songs after
“Don’t Tell Me” sound entirely similar also which leaves
the listener feeling a bit weary after hearing the same arrangements time
and time again. All of the songs seem to begin acoustic and softly and then
break out into the pop chorus, however one can only do this so many times
before the listener catches on to the formula and lack of creativity. Also
making the record hard to listen to somewhat is the message overall. Not exaggerating
all but maybe one or two of the songs are about boys or men if you will not
listening to Avril, not understanding her, not meeting her needs, not paying
attention to her, and not being there for her. I know it’s foolish to
expect more maturity from a teenage artist but it’s hard to listen to
the whining nature of the disc which makes Lavigne sound entirely selfish.
Besides that it’s not as if you’re going to find anything particularly
impressive from any of the musicians, very basic guitar throughout the entire
album, although the drums are sometimes interesting. It seems as though Avril
has a lot to learn about writing songs and though it may be a tad much to
ask from a teenager she could stand to expand her message within them as well.
The split from the Matrix team is evident and Lavigne’s second album
“Under My Skin” is very lacking in all the places it shouldn’t
be….K-Billy
Key Tracks:
Don't Tell
Me
Take Me Away