Avril Lavigne - Goodbye Lullaby

The complicated girl is all grown up. More than a decade after she arrived as the perfect punk foil to pop princess Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne is fully transformed. Gone are the tank tops, sneakers and neckties of her early days, replaced by high heels, her own perfume and dresses from her Abbey Dawn clothing line. She’s even now a divorcee, her marriage to Sum 41 rocker Deryck Whibley having officially ended last November.

All of those changes are reflected on Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne’s fourth album, her edgy, angsty sound largely supplanted by softer pop and mellow balladry. The cover depicts the Canadian singer in a rose-petal dress, draped over a grand piano. Inside, the music is raw and vulnerable and features her most personal songs to date. Lavigne wrote six of them herself, while producing two tracks on her own and another seven with Whibley, with whom she’s remained friends. “This is a very emotional record,” explains Lavigne, “full of sadness and happiness that reflects all the growing up I did.”

Lavigne’s new maturity can be heard on break-up ballads like the cello-laden “Goodbye” and the acoustic “Not Enough,” in which she sings “it’s time to give this up,” while songs like the breezy “I Love You” could well be about her current boyfriend, TV personality Brody Jenner. With the exception of the sassy single “What the Hell,” Goodbye Lullaby leaves behind Lavigne’s punky past in favor of a more sophisticated pop sound. Goodbye sk8r girl, hello grown-up glam.