Under My Skin

by

Avril Lavigne

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When we picked up "Under My Skin" it was one of several albums that went into the CD player in the car and when I did a milk run and was first listening to "Forgotten" I thought I was listening to the new Alanis Morissette album. But after "Let Go" this second album by Avril Lavigne is certainly a step in a better, arguably more mature, direction. On "Let Go" Lavigne worked with producer/songwriters Clif Magness and the Matrix, who polished up her melodic, edgy sound. Her singles "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" both went top 10 and we figured we had Lavigne pegged as another female teenager singer-songwriter with pop sensibilities and shallow lyrics.

But for "Under My Skin" there are two key changes. The producer is now Don Gilmore (engineer on Pearl Jam's "Ten" and producer of several Linkin Park albums) and fellow Canadian Chantal Kreviazuk (who I recognize from "Time" on the "Uptown Girl" soundtrack) has a hand in writing half of the dozen tracks and does piano, keyboards, and string arrangements as well. Do Gilmore and Kreviazuk get the credit for making "Under My Skin" a better album or does Lavigne actually get most of the credit? Damned if I call tell, but somebody did some serious upgrading of the lyrics.

Lavigne is writing songs about the down side of teenage boys, which is an expansive subject matter to contemplate. After all, teenage boys are the modern equivalent of the giant dinosaurs of the past that needed a second brain at the other end to help them along. When dealing with them the fundamental rule is to remember that whenever the other brain is engaged, do not believe anything that is being said. As she points out in "Forgotten," it is not like they are listening to you:

Have you forgotten

Everything that I wanted

Do you forget it now

You never got It

Do you get it now

If there is an obvious anthem on this album it would have to be "Don't Tell Me," where she finds these boys wanting because of what they want and have the gall to expect:

Guess it wasn't enough to take up some of my love

Guys are so hard to trust

Did I not tell you that I'm not like that girl?

The one who gives it all away

[Chorus:]

Did you think that I was gonna give it up to you, this time?

Did you think that it was somethin I was gonna do and cry?

Don't try to tell me what to do,

Dont try to tell me what to say,

Your better off that way

The consistent perspective in these songs is rather retrospective, as the charm and illusions on the teenage infatuation that passes for love is dispelled by the harsh realities of being a teenage girl. It is not surprising then that "My Happy Ending" is about anything but:

You were everything, everything that I wanted

We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it

And all the memories, so close to me, just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

The theme is rather pessimistic from the start as we see in first track, "Take Me Away," which establishes the idea that teenage love is pretty confusing:

All the pain I thought I knew

All the thoughts lead back to you

Back to what was never said

Back and forth inside my head

I can't handle this confusion

I'm unable; come and take me away

But since I keep thinking that this perspective smacks more of realism than pessimism, it seems to me that in the final analysis Lavigne is not only comforting young women but giving their male counterparts broad hints on what they are doing wrong. Teenage boys can just listen to "He Wasn't" and then do the opposite:

Sit on the bed alone, staring at the phone.

He wasn't what I wanted, what I thought, no.

He wouldn't even open up the door.

He never made me feel like I was special.

He isn't really what I'm looking for.

This is when I start to bite my nails.

And clean my room when all else fails.

I think it's time for me to bail.

This point of view is getting stale.

If teenage boys listen to the lyrics of "Under My Skin" then they should know how to do better. But they better not try to fake it because Lavigne's target audience is going to be singing along with these songs and the words are going to get through. I have been listening to this album repeatedly for about two weeks as you can tell even I started paying attention to the lyrics when I was singing along. I have two teenage daughters and I certainly made sure that they got hooked on these songs as well.

I like Avril's music. It's catchy and has the correct amount of guitars and drums for a minor rock-out for those of us not too keen on listening to guys yell and pout and scream the entire album. Compared to Let Go, the lyrics are a bit the same, but the melodies are more mature and darker than Let Go, but where Let Go was filled with possible radio hits, Under My Skin is harder to pin down. With each spin, I find myself discovering that I like one particular song, only to have myself discarding that one in favor of another. Because of this, Avril's fans from her first album may have a hard time listening to Under My Skin because it's less radio/single friendly. But ultimately, Under My Skin falls flat beneath Avril's still less than sophisticated songwriting and her juxtaposing image--is she a rebel with a message or is she just another teenage/young twentysomething woman writing about her bad ex-boyfriends? But it's a fair effort from Avril, and I do look forward to seeing her mature in her music.