When her first album, Let Go, hit shelves in 2002, Avril Lavigne became a household name. Her pop-disguised-as-punk style was a much-needed relief from the Britney phase of pop music, but was still delivered in a clean-cut, teen-friendly package, and I will admit, as a 15-year-old girl, I loved it. It was perfect anthem music for teens who didn't know why they needed an anthem, just that they did. Now, nine years later, Avril Lavigne brings us her fourth album, Goodbye Lullaby, a title that can be viewed as just that: a goodbye to the sugary, teenage pop-punk of her first few albums and an introduction to an Avril that has been married, divorced and significantly tattooed since we first heard Let Go.
In addition to a significant increase in ""adult"" language for the singer, there is a new thread of both loss and maturity running throughout the tracks on the album. Goodbye Lullaby starts off with a short, ballad-like intro song titled ""Black Star."" This piano-based tune is lilting and light, something we really haven't heard from Avril before – and it's a great direction for her.
Immediately following this new sound, however, is the lead single from the album, ""What the Hell,"" which is a catchy, upbeat pop-punk, drum-heavy song done in true Lavigne fashion, which is okay, but we have heard it before. Reminiscent of singles like ""Sk8er Boi"" and ""Girlfriend,"" (the track ""4 Real"" even has the numerals that Lavigne seems so fond of in her song titles): This latest single shows a definite continuity in style and subject, music that by now just seems overdone and definitely overplayed on the radio. Other songs like ""Smile"" and ""Darlin' "" stick to this standard, but deal with more adult themes like one-night stands and loving someone who is depressed, something an older Avril's older fans will definitely appreciate.
Tracks like ""Push,"" ""Wish You Were Here"" and ""Smile"" fall more on the mellow side, filled with piano, violin and gentle guitar sequences, dealing with relationship issues and talking about taking chances and not wasting time. There is a hint of reminiscing about more carefree days for the artist (the haunting, string-driven track ""Remember When"" is an obvious choice for this category), all things with which her now mid-to-late-twenties fans will identify. ""Everybody Hurts"" talks about the universal human experience of being disappointed and hurt by those around you, and ""Not Enough"" looks at a relationship that is going nowhere and needs to end: ""It's not enough / To give me what I want / It's not enough / To give me everything I need / And I wish it were / I think it's time to give this up."" Lavigne really finds her stride with these tracks.
Love and loss also make a prominent appearance on the album, topics incredibly poignant for the recently divorced singer. The sappily-titled ""I Love You"" lends a nice twist on the phrase, with the lyrics ""You're so beautiful / But that's not the reason I love you. / The reason I love you / Is all that we've been through,"" showing a much more profound take on love as opposed to the earlier, physically obsessed single ""Girlfriend."" The final song on the album, aptly named ""Goodbye,"" is a beautiful and temporary farewell, also heavily accented by strings and piano, lending the album its title and finishing the set pointing in the direction of the more mature music that this album tackles.
All in all, Goodbye Lullaby delivers a nice update on the Avril that we were already familiar with. While still retaining the original sound that hooked many of us in 2002, she has made the transition from lollipop punk to a sweet liqueur, a coming-of-age transition to parallel the growth of both the artist and her fans.
