Avril Lavigne's Goodbye Lullaby

I fell in love three times - and two of them are my past relationships, the other one, I fell for Avril Lavigne in 2003 when I first set my ears on "Complicated." When I listened with the whole album, I decided to marry her (in my dreams) - that is how powerful the way Avril writes a song. The emotions on "I'm with You" makes it the best ballads ever written by a punk. Avril is a contradiction of the usual pop that once ruled during those times. When Britney was high above her horses and Christina is being trampled on even with her enormous talent. Avril came and decided to trample Britney with real talent. I can still remember her stiff competitors - Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton. I love Branch but she is of different genre and she is more of a "girl next door on crisis" artist while Avril is the rebel. Vanessa Carlton is good but she seemed to be one of the one-hit-wonders who never recovered and released only 2 good songs: Ordinary Day and A Thousand Miles.

Avril's second album lives up with the first and Avril becomes more in-depth with her songwriting with good songs like Nobody's Home and Don't Tell Me. It was the third album which made her a Pop-princess Wannabe when I first seen and heard the song Girlfriend. It destroyed her completely and lost faith on her. It took a long time before she was able to regain my respect and that was when she released her Fourth Album Goodbye Lullaby. It was in this album when she returns to her roots as an artist. The songs written are so sincere and full of passion. Although "What The Hell" is a generic punk song, the other singles that were released are simply better than the other. "Smile" mellows down and probes on a high school crush type song but with subtlety. "Push" is a more personal song but nothing could compare with "Wish You Were Here" which somehow reflects her failed relationship, which is also present in songs like "Goodbye, Everyday Hurts and Not Enough"

This is the classic Avril that us fans are waiting for. I recently seen Avril's new music video for "Wish You Were Here" and you can see that she really poured her heart out which is very effective. Avril is back from the dead and she made sure that she will be enticed once more with her songwriting skills and melody.

GRADE: A