Avril Lavigne — Under My Skin

Can she do it without The Matrix? That’s the question that pop pundits were asking when news leaked that Avril Lavigne had ditched the team that helped her create "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi" in favour of pals Chantal Kreviazuk, Ben Moody, Raine Maida and Marvelous 3’s Butch Walker. Under My Skin fails to yield anything that matches the sheer magic of The Matrix songs, but as an album, it holds up. As promised, Lavigne has grown up and chucked out some of her signature crisp, teen poppiness, but rather than go full-out punk rock, she’s added traces of gothy darkness. Stand-out tracks like the aggressive "Take Me Away," the bouncy "He Wasn’t" and the vulnerable "Fall To Pieces" may not break any radio records, but they will set Lavigne up as a career artist which, at this point in the game, is more important.

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