Avril Lavigne (album)

Avril Lavigne
Studio album by Avril Lavigne
Released	1 November 2013 (2013-11-01)
Recorded	2011–13 at Hensen Studios, Conway Recording Studios, The Lodge, and Sleepwalker Studios (Los Angeles, California, USA); Nightbird Studios (Hollywood, California, USA); P.S Studio (Stockholm, Sweden); and Casa de la Vida Studios (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico)[1]
Genre	Pop rock,[2] adult alternative,[3] alternative rock[4][5][6]
Length	46:06
Label	Epic
Producer	Avril Lavigne (exec.) L.A. Reid (exec.) Chris Baseford David Hodges Rickard B Göransson Martin Johnson Chad Kroeger Kyle Moorman Brandon Paddock Matt Squire Peter Svensson
Avril Lavigne chronology
Goodbye Lullaby (2011) Avril Lavigne (2013)
Singles from Avril Lavigne
"Here's to Never Growing Up" Released: 9 April 2013 "Rock n Roll" Released: 27 August 2013 "Let Me Go" Released: 15 October 2013

Avril Lavigne is the self-titled fifth studio album by Canadian singer Avril Lavigne, released on 1 November 2013 by Sony Music Entertainment. The album is a follow-up to her 2011 effort Goodbye Lullaby. Lavigne collaborated with numerous producers including Martin Johnson of Boys Like Girls, Peter Svensson, David Hodges, Matt Squire and her husband Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. In both musical and lyrical aspects, the album represents a departure from her previous production, including a more pop and upbeat sound, but not dropping her "bratty" or "immature" image, which was heavily criticized.

Avril Lavigne debuted in the Top 20 in twenty-four markets including the Billboard 200. Three of the album singles - "Here's to Never Growing Up", "Rock n Roll", and "Let Me Go" - all charted the Billboard Hot 100. "Here's To Never Growing Up" is the album's most successful single.

Background and recording

Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne announced that work on her fifth studio album had already begun, with eight songs written so far. Lavigne stated that the album would musically be the opposite of Goodbye Lullaby, with a release date rumoured for sometime in 2012.^{[ 1]} Lavigne explained, "Goodbye Lullaby was more mellow, [but] the next one will be pop and more fun again. I already have a song that I know is going to be a single, I just need to re-record it!"^{[ 1][ 1][ 1]} In late 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had moved to Epic Records, which is now headed by L.A. Reid, who signed Lavigne to Arista Records in 2000.

Recording sessions began in November 2011, and took place over a period of almost two years, concluding in July 2013. It is rumoured that 34 songs were recorded during the recording seasons of the album. The lead single "Here's to Never Growing Up" was released on 9 April 2013; reaching the top twenty in the United States, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom, and the top ten in Ireland and Japan. Lavigne premiered the second single "Rock n Roll" on 18 July 2013,^[7] the song itself was released on 27 August, with the music video premiering a week earlier on 20 August, the song has been one of her least successful singles in the US, charting only at No. 91 of Billboard Hot 100, top 5 in Japan and South Korea.^[8] It was announced in July 2013 that the album would be released on 24 September 2013, but recently another date has been announced, 5 November 2013 and later confirmed.^{[ 1][ 1]}

On 8 August 2013, Lavigne revealed the cover art for the album via her Instagram account.^[9] In a recent interview at the radio station 99.5 The River, Lavigne confirmed that her new album will be available to pre-order on 24 September 2013 and will be released later on 5 November.^[10] The official track listing was later revealed on 5 September. The entire album stream on iTunes and her official website on 29 October.^[11]

Recording

In November 2011, Lavigne stated that she entered the studio to start recording new songs for the album.^{[ 1]} In April 2012, Lavigne confirmed that she had "finally" finished work on her fifth album and that she would be taking a short hiatus before releasing it and embarking on "[her] next artistic journey". On 17 August 2012, Lavigne began finalizing work on her fifth album by starting the mixing process and laying down last minute ad-libs and backing vocals, before completely wrapping up production two days later on 19 August 2012.

All of the thirteen tracks on the album have been confirmed; including the second single from the album, "Rock n Roll", which Lavigne premiered on 18 July 2013. "Here's to Never Growing Up", which was co-written with Chad Kroeger; a duet with Kroeger called "Let Me Go" which is the third single;^{[ 1]} a duet with Marilyn Manson titled "Bad Girl"; "17", which was debuted at a surprise performance at The Viper Room in Los Angeles.^{[ 1][ 1]} "Hello Kitty", an "aggressive" song about the fictional Japanese character, which Lavigne describes as "kind of glitchy, electronic";^{[ 1]} "Hush Hush" and "Give You What You Like", which Lavigne revealed were her favorite tracks from the album.^{[citation needed]}

Because Lavigne had written so many songs for her fifth album, she was considering releasing two back-to-back albums.^{[ 1]}

Singles

On 9 April 2013, the album's lead single, "Here's to Never Growing Up", produced by Martin Johnson of the band Boys Like Girls, was released.^[12] The track peaked at No. 20 on Billboard Hot 100 in the US, as well as the Top 20 in Australia and the UK and the Top 10 in Ireland and Japan. A lyric video featuring submitted photographs of fans "never growing up" was released onto Lavigne's official Vevo account the same day as the release of the single.^[13] The song's official music video was later released on 9 May 2013.^[14]

The second single, "Rock n Roll", premiered on Lavigne's official YouTube channel on 18 July 2013 and was released on 27 August,^[15] with the music video premiering a week earlier on 20 August. A lyric video for featuring fan-made videos submitted through Instagram was released onto Lavigne's official Vevo account on 12 August 2013.^[16] The song peaked at the top spot of both the Lebanon and South Korea charts and No. 5 in Japan, while reaching No. 91 on the US Billboard chart.

"Let Me Go" featuring Chad Kroeger was confirmed as the album's third single.^[17] It premiered on the radio station KBIG on 7 October 2013.^[18] It was officially impacted Contemporary hit radio in Italy on 11 October 2013.^[19] It was later made available for purchase on iTunes along with its music video on 15 October 2013.^[20]

On 2 November 2013, when asked which song would she like to release as the album's fourth single, Lavigne replied: "Hello Kitty" or "Give You What You Like".^[21]

On 5 February 2014, on the Avril Lavigne Tour, she presented a new video of "Bad Girl". It is unofficial, yet there are many rumors about a video made only for fans like Goodbye for Goodbye Lullaby in 2012.^[22]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	65/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[23]
Billboard	82/100[24]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[25]
Santa Cruz Sentinel	[26]
Digital Spy	[27]
The Guardian Weekly	[28]
Music OMH	[29]
Edge of The Plank	[30]
Idolator	[31]
Now Magazine	[3]
Slant Magazine	[3]
Sputnikmusic	[3]
Absolute Punk	[3]
Rolling Stone	[32][33]

Avril Lavigne received generally mixed reviews from music critics, with some critics commending it as one of her best albums in recent years. Fender described the album saying that "...proves that the reigning pop-punk princess can still rock the line between hard-edged skate punk and heartfelt ballads with ease.".^[34] Generally the involvement of husband Chad Kroeger on the album wasn't well received by critics. Nick Catucci of Entertainment Weekly said that "The irresistibly zippy, perceptive and, on two (possibly three) occasions, deeply weird Avril Lavigne reminds us that maturity sometimes means doubling down on what’s expected of you."^[35] Now Magazine gave it an overwhelmingly negative review stating that "The most listenable song is the Chavril duet Let Me Go, which has zero of either musician’s “edge” and a whole lot of adult contemporary schmaltz.^[36] Another negative review from Slant Magazine says, "Avril Lavigne is filled with similar empty life-affirming mantras and boasts of rebelliousness. Lavigne has mined these themes with success in the past, but here the exploration feels forced, as if she's trying to capture an attitude, and craft a persona, that she no longer lives."^[37] "Jason Lipshutz of Billboard also gave a positive review saying "For the most part, Lavigne's fifth full-length encapsulates everything worth loving about the 29-year-old's long-running artistry." Billboard also praised the tracks "17" and "Hush Hush".^[38] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide gave a rating of three and half stars out of five, saying "This ultimately winds up as one of Avril's livelier and better albums; it's all about the good times, no matter how temporary or illusionary they may be."^[23] Gary Graff of Santa Cruz Sentinel gave it 2 and a half stars, saying: "This is Avril Lavigne as her fans want her — upbeat and playfully rebellious, sounding more teenage at 29 than she has on her last couple of albums."^[39] Robert Copsey of Digital Spy gave a mixed review with three stars, saying "For the most part though, Avril seems content staying in the same lane, singing about the same things to pretty much the same tune. She may have self-titled the album because she didn't know what else to call it, but truth be told, nothing could sum it up better."^[27] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian also gave it a mixed review, with three out of five stars.^[28] Brazilian page Avril Lavigne Brazil (ALavigne) ^[40] posted a note on the record giving it a positive review highlighting "Sippin' on Sunshine" as one of the most successful tracks in the album, along with "Hello Heartache" and "Give you what you like". They criticized though, the poor choice of singles off this record, stating that "Avril Lavigne is stuck in a 'common-place' choosing singles her fans would have expected from her in 2002 instead of the tracks that would definitely attract several new followers."

Commercial performance

On the first day of sales in Japan, charts provider Oricon reported Avril Lavigne sold 13,800 non-digital copies of the album. This made it the third highest performing album of the day, underneath Jin Akanishi's #Justjin and Lady Gaga's Artpop.^[41] It debuted at number 2 in Japan selling 47,873 copies there during its first week. The album debuted at number 14 in the United Kingdom, selling 9,139 copies during its debut week, making the album the lowest-charting album by Lavigne during the first week in the UK to date.

It debuted top 10 in over 50 countries on iTunes. In the U.S., the album debuted at #5 with around 44,000 copies sold in its first week of release, dropping to number #26 and #64 in its second and third week, respectively, becoming the second album by Avril Lavigne not to reaching neither the top spot nor staying in the top 10 for more than 2 weeks.^[42]

In Canada, the album debuted at number four on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 8,500 copies.^[43]

In China, the album released on 3 December 2013 and debuted at number 1 on the China Albums Chart (Sino-chart), selling 7,941 copies in its first week.

As of January 26th the album has sold over 161,000 in Japan, 125,000 in the US, 28,000 in the UK, 20,000 in Germany, 30,000 in Brazil, 15,000 in China, 40,000 in Canada, 10,000 in Italy and 36,000 in Taiwan. Worldwide sales are over 540,000 copies.

Track listings

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies a vocal producer

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Avril Lavigne.^[1]

Release history

Charts and certifications

References