Here's my (current) album ranking:
1. Under My SkinGreat production and great instrumentation, probably the best of all of Avril's albums. Avril's voice sounds very good most of the time, though I think in some songs (especially in the verses of DTM) her voice sounds kinda weak. The lyrics are pretty simple, but not too simple imo (except for "Slipped Away". I hate to say this, because I know how much this song must mean to Avril, but I think it's mostly very poorly written). It's still enjoyable and I actually kinda like some of that simplicity. I also love the dark theme. I just generally enjoy dark songs a lot more than happy sounding stuff.
2. Let Go
Once again, great instrumentation and great production. The lyrics are definitely the best of all of Avril's albums. I really love the themes that a lot of these songs deal with: being yourself and being proud of who you are. This message has helped me through a really tough time. I'll always be grateful for that.
There are two negative things, though, which is why I enjoy UMS more: Avril's voice. I think it sounds pretty weak most of the time. And then there are these fillers: "Mobile", "Tomorrow", "Things I'll Never Say", and "My World". Even though I always enjoy them whenever I listen to them, I can't help but consider them fillers and tend to skip them.
3. Goodbye Lullaby (sorry, I just couldn't make it short)I tried to make it short, but I just couldn't, so here's a very
rough summary: great concept and generally a good album with some strong songs, but the flat production kinda ruins it and the melody, which always seems to be the same, makes it kinda boring.
Detailed review:I often read that GL seems to be split in Max Martin's "hit songs" and songs that follow the original concept. But Max Martin and Shellback only wrote four of GL's songs: "What The Hell", "Wish You Were Here", "Smile", and "I Love You". They're sound-wise definitely different from the rest of the album, but the lyrics still fit thematically imo (with WTH being the big exception, of course. I like that song a lot, but it's completely misplaced on GL).
But I understand the other criticism. The lyrics are even more simple than those of UMS. I personally still enjoy some of that simplicity, but some songs are too simple even for me. What also annoys me is that all songs are written in the same melodical pattern. Pretty much every song consists of four chords that are nearly always played in the same succession throughout the song, and that can get pretty boring.
Then there's the production and the drums: I'm really glad that on most songs the drums are in the background. Because those fake drums in WYWH really ruin the song for me. Same with "I Love You", and "Push" could have been a lot better with decent drums as well. And the production doesn't make it sound better. Everything sounds kinda flat and empty, even Avril's voice.
I also want to get something off my chest concerning "Black Star": I used to kinda defend it by saying "well, it's just an intro" But then, a few years after GL's release, when I started listening to more music than just Avril, I realized that that was just a lame excuse.
Green Day's "Song Of The Century", the intro song to their 8th studio album "21st Century Breakdown" is only 57 seconds long. There aren't even any instruments in it; it's just Billie Joe's voice and some static noise. Yet it's a brilliant song and perfect as an intro.
Then there's "The End." (1:52) by My Chemical Romance, intro to their 3rd studio album "The Black Parade", and imo the best intro song I have ever had the pleasure the hear.
You could say now "but you can't compare rock to pop". And it's true, you can't. But there's still that: Intro songs are supposed to set the mood for the entire record, preferably even segue into the second/first full song of the album. "Black Star" doesn't do that at all. There's no mood to it (how could there be? it's just an advertising jingle), the lyrics don't have anything to do with the album (they actually don't have any meaning at all; at least I can't find one), and it's followed by a song that couldn't sound more different from it. Hence, "Black Star" is quite completely unnecessary.
But despite all that, I still find myself enjoying the album whenever I listen to it. There's a lot of emotion in there, and that helps me ignore the flat production and weak lyrics. And I like the general style a lot: the lyrics often deal with loss and heartbreak; dark stuff. And like I already wrote, I just kinda like dark songs.
I also don't want to leave "Darlin" unmentioned: that song is a huge exception of everything negative I wrote about the album: the lyrics are fantastic, those acoustic guitars are amazing, and Avril sounds great. That song is "so beautiful it makes me want to cry".
I should also mention that during GL era I saw Avril live for the first (and so far only) time in my life. A lot of people seem to have been disappointed by "The Black Star Tour", but I think it was great. I can't even describe it. I guess you just really have to be at the concert to be able to get that feeling.
4. The Best Damn Thing
To be completely honest, there are just two reasons why I like this album more than AL: the production and the instruments. Both are really great, especially (as in UMS) the drums.
But apart from that there's nothing I really like about this album anymore (I used to love it when I was a kid). Everything sounds way too high-pitched. I don't know why that is. Mixing? Engineering? Or is the production bad after all? Whatever, it gets really annoying very quickly.
The lyrics might be good, but they're all totally unrelatable to me. All this bratty stuff... It's fun for two or three songs, but not for an entire album.
I also can't help but feel that almost all songs are too long. Everything after the second chorus, partly even already after the second verse, seems like unnecessary repetition. It's worst in "I Can Do Better". The songs start nice, but halfway through it gets pretty annoying, and once the song is over it feels as though I spent 5 minutes listening to it instead of just 3.
What I dislike the most, though, is this kind of annoyingly childish and chaotic pop-punk. I just don't like it, that genre really isn't my taste.
The only exception of all this is (the sadly unpopular) "Hot". I love this song. No chaos, no childish or high-pitched sound. The production, Avril's voice, and the instrumentation are so great that I can easily ignore the to me completely unrelatable lyrics (or just see them as kinda sarcastic xD).
5. Avril Lavigne
It's already been said so often, so I'll just summarize it quickly: bad production, too much (unnecessary) autotune, half the songs sound awfully forced, bad and senseless lyrics (an almost 30-year-old singing about how "school is finally out" wtf?), no overall theme, hardly any enthusiasm (at least I can't really feel any), the worst album shoot Avril's ever done, not even a decent "thank you" in the booklet.
It's just all so obvious to me that Avril herself eventually wasn't happy with this album, which makes it all appear even more forced. You may not necessarily hear that in the songs, of course, but I just can't help thinking about all this whenever I listen to the album.
There are still a few songs that are good, like "Hello Heartache" or "Give You What You Like". But eventually, I can't count any of the album's songs to my definite favourites.
What's funny, though, is that I still listen to AL more often that TBDT. I don't even really know why...