Getting her grown-up act together

[Sharifa]

Title: Getting her grown-up act together

Author: RAFER GUZMÁN

Publication: Source Unknown

Date: 11.11.2004





AVRIL LAVIGNE. Entering a developmental phase. Seen Monday at Continental Airlines Arena, New Jersey.

The last time most of us saw Avril Lavigne was in May 2003, at Nassau Coliseum, when she was 18 and singing about boys and their skateboards. Now she's 20 and singing about sexual boundaries.

Has Lavigne really changed during that brief but formative time? As a person, perhaps a lot. But as an artist, just a little.

Previously marketed as a tomboyish antidote to Britney Spears, Lavigne now wants to appear newly grown. She recorded her latest album, "Under My Skin" (Arista) without The Matrix, the production team that co-wrote the biggest hits on her previous disc, "Let Go." She recently bared a bit of cleavage on the cover of Maxim magazine and told the interviewer she drinks Grey Goose. And on her single "Don't Tell Me," Lavigne grapples with more than boys' skateboards: "Did you think that I was gonna give it up to you this time?"

"Under My Skin" is an incremental step forward from the catchy pop of "Let Go." Co-written mainly with Chantal Kreviazuk, the album aims for a grown-up grouchiness. "Something just isn't right," Lavigne complains on "Together." On "How Does It Feel," she sings, "I am young and I am free / But I get tired and I get weak." The tunes are radio-friendly but also downbeat, built around brooding rock guitars.

Lavigne has certainly developed as a performer. Her Nassau show last year felt scripted, with Lavigne reciting speeches as if taking an oral exam and racing through her songs. Monday night, however, she appeared relaxed and comfortable - even natural. During "Take Me Away," a new number, she used expressive arm movements and stamped her feet on the chorus. She had fun with the phrasing on her old hit "Sk8er Boi," turning some of the lines ("Can I make it any more obvious?") into catty asides.

On several songs, she lowered her band's volume and slowed the tempo, letting the music breathe. "I'm With You" became the show's centerpiece, with Lavigne singing in a deeper- than-usual voice and stretching out her words. It's a simple, sing-song tune - "I'm looking for a place / I'm searching for a face" - but Lavigne transformed it into a sensitive ballad.

To quiet any grumbling that she's a fabricated pop act - and perhaps to distance herself from her lip-synching contemporary, Ashlee Simpson - Lavigne made a big show of playing her own instruments. She frequently strummed guitar, sat alone at a piano during the closing number, "Slipped Away," and even played drums on a cover of Blur's "Song 2" (with vocals provided by opening act Butch Walker). These moments weren't the most impressive - Lavigne's skills were rudimentary at best - but they certainly proved her point.

Any discussion about Lavigne's growth as an artist is going to be brief: Her songs still are fairly facile and she's dependent on her musicians rather than in charge of them. Then again, at 20 she has plenty of time.