Album Review: Avril Lavigne, Goodbye Lullaby

28 March 2011

by Nathan Jolly

Maybe things weren’t so complicated, after all? When we last heard from Avril back in 2007, things were fairly breezy, despite her last single Hot being her lowest selling to date, hitting a paltry #95. Still, as the third single from an album which hit #1 and sold 5 million copies, it wasn’t really seen as a failure.

Since then, Avril has divorced Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley and seen the release date for this album pushed back numerous times, for reasons ranging from illness to record company interference due to the lack of ‘upbeat’ songs on the record. What finally emerges, two and a half years since recording started, is a reasonably strong collection of songs, peppered with the odd misfire.

The record as a whole is a purge. This much isn’t surprising; however the shape it takes often is. Stop Standing There is a charming and focused pop song, with content that aims outwards in a mature manner. Penned solely by Lavigne, it is the album’s highlight. Following track I Love You is mush; vapid Dawsons’-esque declarations of nothing, and obviously a sketch that somebody forgot to colour in.

Acoustic guitar is the dominant instrument on this album, and tracks like Everybody Hurts, Push and Not Enough see Avril sounding more like Alanis Morrisette than ever before. Darlin’ sounds dangerously-close-but-legally-distinct from Morrisette’s Head Over Feet, and Not Enough’s forward propulsion will be enough to see it heavily synched to dramatic television moments for the next year.

The most pleasing outcome of Goodbye Lullaby is that this is the first album in which it appears Avril has outgrown both her skater-angst image and her collaborators. While it cannot be argued that heavy label-involvement in the past helped propel her into stardom and soften her considerable edges, the best songs on this album are the ones that Lavigne wrote alone. While the co-written tracks rattle with insincerity and over-production, Lavigne’s stripped back songs (either self-produced or tastefully done so by Whilbey), eschew tricks and fad for the understated elegance of classic songwriting, even if they slightly fall short.

The upbeat tracks such as first single What The Hell, I Love You and the first half of Smile come across as forced; possibly the ‘upbeat’ radio tracks the label required of her. Regardless of the reason, their inclusion on the album ultimately dilutes both the meaning and the consistency of this record.

Avril Lavigne is never going to win any awards for exploring emotional nuances, but this record aptly serves as an open and honest trawl through her considerable baggage, with some nice Alanis moments thrown in for good measure.