Note: The first couple paragraphs are just me rambling. To save time, skip down to the third one.

It’s not like me to be a pessimist about musicians and their careers, but Avril Lavigne’s media hype as a punk rawker with good looks kind of invites these feelings. After hitting it big (and fast) with the first single, “Complicated” on her debut album Let Go, a media frenzy of interviews, photo shoots, (relatively) small-time TV apprearances and even topping MTV’s TRL seemed to become pretty common for Avril Lavigne, the 17-year old Canadian singer/songwriter with SPUNK~! (for lack of a better term). And, judging by her debut, she deserves attention. However, her only problem is that the attention is being given to her and not her music. And that’s going to be the roadblock she’s going to have to overcome if she wants to have a nice, long career.

See, Avril’s not exactly like the other singer/songwriting teenage girls to pop up in the past two years (or so). See, she’s a punk! And she shows it in interviews and the like! And her sound matches this personality… or so the media around her would like you to think. Yet, just judging from the first single “Complicated” this isn’t the case. A polished, poppy song about staying true to oneself, the song lacks any real punk elements at all; it sounds like standard fare for her contemporary Michelle Branch, but heavier.

---Mini-rant ends here--

So does the rest of the album disprove this? Kinda. The second single, “Sk8er Boi” is more true to her image than anything else on the record. While being poppy, it’s also fast, hooky and it gets to the point. The lyrics are on the weak side, though. “He was a boy/she was a girl/can I make it anymore obvious?/He was a punk/She did ballet/What more can I say?” Yeah, not the greatest lyricist in the world. But it’s a neat song. Fast, and with a little message to it that I’ll leave to go discover to yourself (because, well, it’s not exactly deeply-buried).

But I digress, I’ll start from the beginning. The opening song, “Losing Grip” is probably the weakest track on the album. It’s boring, loud, and that’s just about it. Part of it sounds like Ed from Live is singing, which could almost be a redeeming factor, but… No, no it couldn’t. Following this are the two singles, and then the first ballad of the album: “I’m With You.” The song itself isn’t exactly the best, but her delivery is spectacular and shows off some of her range with the soaring vocals at the end (hear that? “I’m with youuuuuuuuuuuuu! I’m with youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!” man, I love it!). The next song is “Mobile,” which is probably an almost dead-on prediction of what wound up happening to her after “Complicated” hit it big. “Everythings changing when I turn around all out of my control I'm a mobile.” If it hasn’t happened now, it WILL happen, and soon. As with most of the songs on this CD, it’s hooky and strong. It definitely gets my vote for second best song here.

Next song is “Unwanted.” The title describes how I feel about the song (don’t you love it when that happens? I know I do. It makes me feel witty when I say so). Slow verses, loud chorus. Never could keep my attention. But what’s next? “Tomorrow.” Another ballad. Second best ballad on the album. It’s a beautiful song, subtle, searching, sad, somewhat regretful, yet, at the same time, hopeful… brings a tear to these eyes, it does. This is definitely the second best ballad on the album. “Hey-yeah-ee-yeah, Hey-yeah-ee-yeah, I’m not ready/ Hey-yeah-ee-yeah, Hey-yeah-ee-yeah maybe tomorrow.” Beautiful with a capital B. The next song, also a highlight, is “Anything But Ordinary.” Avril’s life-credo, if you will. Why is it a highlight? Because it’s so honest, it’s hard not to like it. Look up the lyrics on www.azlyrics.com (unless you can’t take the pop-ups, in which case I can’t blame you).

To wrap things up a little faster, “Things I’ll Never Say” is good, but only really notable for a few double entendres (again, go look them up yourself). “My World” is like a remake of “Anything But Ordinary,” but inferior because (unless you have your player on “random”), it’s already been done on this record. “Nobody’s Fool” is a song I don’t like and don’t hate, but at the same time, I WANT to hate it, and I WANT to like it (score one for making sense!). See, it runs along the same lines of self-anthem-dom as “Anything But Ordinary” and “My World,” but this time she raps in the verses. The rapping itself is just… bad. But something about the lyrics make me want to like those parts. The chorus is pretty standard by this point in the album, which by this point, is kind of tiring, but on the other hand is pleasing. Oh well.

“Too Much that I’m Asking For” is another softer one. Pretty, but I’m seriously getting tired. I love it while I’m listening to it, but before I listened to it in order to review it, I couldn’t remember how it went for the life of me. Finally, though, the last song, “Naked.” Bombastic but beautiful, somewhat innocent but any song with the word “Naked” in the title can’t be THAT innocent, honest, disarming… this is the peak of the album, easily. Sitting through the blandness of the last few songs before this one was well worth it. Perfect vocals, beautiful guitars… Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

So, all-round, it’s a pretty good debut, but she’s got a lot to prove before I’m convinced she stays around for longer than the proverbial 15 minutes. Not that she should care what I think.