Let Go (Avril Lavigne album)

Background

Lavigne relocated to Los Angeles, where she collaborated with songwriter-producer Clif Magness, who gave her ample creative control in the writing process. Lavigne and Magness wrote "Losing Grip" and "Unwanted", songs that she deemed reflective of her vision for the entire album. However, Arista was not thrilled with the heavy-guitar laden songs that Lavigne was writing, prompting the label to look for other producers to match their demands.

Now two years since she signed the deal, Lavigne, who was then unknown, came to the attention of the three-piece production team The Matrix. Arista could not find the right direction for Lavigne, so the team's manager, Sandy Roberton, suggested that they work together: "Why don't you put her together with The Matrix for a couple of days?" According to member Lauren Christy, they had been listening to Lavigne's early songs and felt they contained "a Faith Hill kind of vibe". As soon as they saw Lavigne coming into their studio, The Matrix felt that her musical direction was incongruous to her image and attitude. After talking to Lavigne for an hour, "we cottoned on that she wasn't happy but couldn't quite figure out where to go". The Matrix played her songs with Faith Hill influences, because it was those kind of songs the label wanted Lavigne to sing. But Lavigne dismissed it, saying she wanted songs with punk rock inclinations. Lavigne played The Matrix a song that she had recorded and really loved, a track with sounds in the likes of the rock band System of a Down. Fortunately, prior to forming The Matrix, its members' early projects were in the pop-rock type, so they readily figured out what Lavigne wanted to record and knew exactly what to do with her. They told her to come back the following day, and in the afternoon during that day, they wrote a song that evolved into "Complicated" and another song called "Falling Down" (Falling Down appears on the Sweet Home Alabama Soundtrack). They played it to Lavigne when she came back the following day, inspiring her what path she should take.

When Josh Sarubin, the A&R executive who signed Lavigne to the imprint, heard the song, he knew it was right for her. Lavigne presented the song to Reid, who agreed the musical direction Lavigne and The Matrix were taking, and set "Complicated" as the album's lead single. Reid sent Lavigne back to The Matrix to work with them, initially for a month. Arista gave the team carte blanche to write and produce 10 songs, which took them two months. The album was originally entitled Anything But Ordinary, after the track of the same name that The Matrix produced, but Lavigne asked Reid for the album to be called Let Go instead.

Critics described Let Go as an alternative rock album with pop rock influences and post-grunge-oriented sound.

Writing and recording

With The Matrix, Lavigne recorded tracks in Decoy Studios, situated in a Los Angeles suburb known as Valley Village. She also worked with producer-songwriter Curt Frasca and Peter Zizzo, whose Manhattan studio Lavigne was checked in prior to securing a record deal with Arista, and where Lavigne also recorded some of the tracks. The Matrix member Scott Spock was their principal engineer for the project, while Tom Lord-Alge was assigned to mix the tracks. Lavigne recorded complete takes "against the largely finished instrumental tracks". Spocks revealed Lavigne normally recorded each song in five or six takes, "and probably 90 percent of what was finally used came from the first or second takes". The Matrix also contributed backing vocals.

Introduced as a singer-songwriter, Lavigne's involvement produced significant issues. Lavigne has implied that she is the primary author of the album. In an article published in Rolling Stone magazine, Lavigne stated that while working with The Matrix, one member would be in the recording studio while they were writing, but did not write the guitar parts, lyrics, or the melody. According to Lavigne, she and Christy wrote all the lyrics together. Graham would come up with some guitar parts, "and I'd be like, 'Yeah, I like that,' or 'No, I don't like that.' None of those songs aren't from me."

The Matrix, who produced six songs for Lavigne, five of which appear in the album, had another explanation of how the collaboration went. According to them, they wrote much of the portions in the three singles: "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", and "I'm with You", which were conceived using a guitar and piano. Christy said, "Avril would come in and sing a few melodies, change a word here or there." Reid complemented the issue over the credits: "If I'm looking for a single for an artist, I don't care who writes it. Avril had the freedom to do as she really pleased, and the songs show her point of view. ... Avril has always been confident about her ideas."

Although she needed pop songs "to break" into the industry, Lavigne felt "Complicated" does not reflect her and her songwriting skills. Nonetheless, she was grateful for the song as it successfully launched her career. She favors more "Losing Grip", because "it means so much more when it comes straight from the artist".

Release and promotion

The album was released on 4 June 2002, in Canada and the United States. Later, on 22 July, Let Go hit record stores worldwide, and on 26 August in some parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom and Ireland. A DataPlay version of the album was released in September 2002. Arista had established a deal with DataPlay earlier in 2002, and included Let Go alongside albums by rock singer Santana and singer Whitney Houston in the release.

Although Lavigne was targeted to the teen audience, a marketing strategy credited with the successful launch of her career; Lavigne performed on a host of radio-sponsored multi-artist holiday shows throughout the United States, a marketing strategy that induced higher sales of the album during the season. She embarked on her first headlining tour, Try To Shut Me Up Tour, which took place on 23 January 2003, and ended on 4 June 2003. Lavigne toured with her band—drummer Matthew Brann, bassist Mark Spicoluk, and guitarists Jesse Colburn and Evan Taubenfeld—which she had grouped after signing the deal. In the tour, she included all songs off Let Go, B-sides, and cover versions of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan and "Basket Case" by Green Day.

Lavigne filmed her performance in Buffalo, New York, on 18 May 2003, the final date of her five-week headlining North American tour. The tour DVD My World was released on 4 November 2003, on joint venture by Arista Records and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The DVD features the concert, a behind-the-scenes featurette, five music videos and a six-song bonus audio CD that includes an unreleased track "Why".

Singles

Other songs

Other songs were released as regional radio-only singles. "Things I'll Never Say" was released as a radio-only single in Italy. "Unwanted" was released as a promotional single in the United Kingdom. The song "Tomorrow" was played in one episode of the second season of the Warner Bros. series Smallville, while the song "Anything But Ordinary" was played in one episode of the TV series Birds of Prey.

Critical reception

Let Go has earned mostly positive responses from critics, earning 68 points on Metacritic based on the collated reviews from 7 publications. Rolling Stone magazine's music critic Pat Blashill wrote that the album "comes fully loaded with another dozen infectious hymns of Total Request angst". Blashill complimented Lavigne on having a "great voice", adding she crafted the album with "a qualified staff of hitmakers". Christina Saraceno of AllMusic noted that Lavigne "handles a variety of styles deftly", while also complimenting her as "a capable songwriter with vocal chops". Nonetheless, Saraceno opined that "at her age, one imagines, she is still finding her feet, borrowing from the music she's grown up listening to". John Perry of Blender magazine summarized Let Go into an "outstanding guitar-pop debut". A review in Q magazine praised Lavigne for displaying "a musical guile way beyond her years". Kaj Roth of Melodic felt that Lavigne "sings lovely and some of the songs goes in the Alanis Morissette [sic] vein." For Jon Caramanica of Entertainment Weekly magazine (who gave the album a B−), "Lavigne's monochromatic debut set of unimaginative guitar rock is saved only by the earnestness of her songs."

Some reviewers had similar sentiments toward the quality of the lyrics to some songs in the album. Saraceno said that Lavigne "still has some growing up to do lyrically", asserting "Sk8er Boi" shows her "lyrical shortcomings" and calling the phrasing in "Too Much to Ask" "awkward and sometimes silly". Perry noted the lyrics to "Sk8er Boi" as "endearingly naive".

The album earned Lavigne numerous awards from organizations around the world. The success of the album's commercial performance led Lavigne to be named Best New Artist at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards as well as winning a World Music Award for Best-Selling Canadian Singer. She won three awards—Favorite Female Artist, Favorite Breakthrough Artist, and the Style Award—the most of any performer at the 2003 MTV Asia Awards. She received five nominations for the album at the 2003 Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album. The album's singles "Complicated" and "I'm With You" were nominated Song of the Year at the 2003 and 2004 ceremony, respectively, accumulating eight nominations for the album. Lavigne was nominated for six categories at the 2003 Juno Awards—which were presented in Ottawa—winning four including Best Album and Best New Artist.

Commercial performance

Let Go was commercially successful in the United States, gaining praise from Entertainment Weekly magazine as one of the biggest pop debut albums of 2002. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 8 on the strength of 62,000 unit sales and later peaked at number 2. Its high debut was fueled by the success of "Complicated", which was in heavy rotation on MTV. Increasing weekly sales allowed the album to stay inside the chart's top 10 for 37 weeks. The album sold at least 100,000 copies every week straight until late 2002, easily accumulating over two million unit sales. In a December 2002 report by Entertainment Weekly magazine, it was stated that the album had sold 3.9 million copies, becoming the third top-selling album of 2002 in the United States. Year-end figures released by Nielsen SoundScan revealed that Let Go had sold over 4.1 million copies in the United States, accumulated in 30 weeks of the album's release. Let Go was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. This earned Let Go the distinction of being the highest-shipped debut of 2002 and best-selling album by a female artist. On 30 April 2003, the RIAA certified the album six-times platinum, denoting shipments of over six million units. It remains Lavigne's best-selling album to date, with 6.9 million copies sold in the United States and over 20 million worldwide as of 2013.

Chartwise, the album reached higher peak positions notably during and after the holidays. Following her show-opening performance at the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, Let Go continued to be one of the holiday's top sellers with sales that week of 272,000. It reached its highest sales week on the issue dated 4 January 2003 with 363,000 copies sold. Although it had peaked at number two in September 2002, Let Go rose from 3 to 2 on the Billboard 200 on the issue dated 1 February 2003. The increase of sales was the offshoot to Lavigne's appearance on 11 January in Saturday Night Live as the show's musical guest. There were accusations of lip-synching but in an interview at the time she tells she has never lip-sung or ever plans to. During this time also, Lavigne received much media coverage due to her nominations at the 2003 Grammy Awards and for embarking on her first North American tour. In the United Kingdom, the album took longer to reach the summit of the UK Albums Chart. In its 18th week of release, reached on the chart year 2003, the album hit number one, rising to the top spot over the holiday. The album's international sales upsurge was attributed to the continuing success of "Sk8er Boi". Let Go is the 12th best-selling album of 2003 in the United Kingdom. The album has been certified six-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry.

Let Go was also selling well in Canada, surpassing sales of over one million unit sales in less than a year. The Canadian Recording Industry Association certified the album diamond in May 2003. In Australia, Let Go had been certified seven-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association in 2003, based on the sales of over 490,000 units from wholesalers to retailers. The album is the tenth best-selling album of 2002 there, and the third in the following year.. 'Let Go' reached its peak worldwide during Christmas holiday with almost 860,000 copies sold worldwide during Christmas week and then another 600,000 copies worldwide in the first week of 2003.

Track listing

(*) Additional production

Personnel

This list of credits is based on barnesandnoble.com.

Awards

At the 2003 Grammy Awards, Lavigne received five nominations, including Best Pop Vocal Album for Let Go, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Complicated", Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Sk8er Boi" and the coveted Best New Artist. At the 2004 Grammy Awards Lavigne received the nominations Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I'm with You" and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Losing Grip".