What is Avril's Magnum Opus?

Let Go. I don’t think she could’ve released any other album from her discography as her debut and gone on to achieve the level of success she had. Without a doubt her best album quality wise and just perfect for both her and the music industry at the time. She won’t ever put out a better or more iconic album than LG imo.

I’d say the same as katy. I know a lot of her fans would probably say UMS, but for me it’s definitely LG. It’s the album with the most hits on it and it’s her most iconic album, the one that put her on the map. It’s by far her most successful album in terms of sales and hits. You could argue it’s also probably her most critically acclaimed as well as it’s her highest ranking album on Metacritic and her only album to receive any Grammy nominations. She also won a couple of JUNO awards for it, including AOTY, whereas I don’t think any of her other albums did.

I also think it’s her best written album in terms of lyrics and he production is really solid, despite having a mix of different producers. It really sounds like one solid body of work and to me, even though this album is nearly 20 years old, I never get sick of it and it never sounds dated to me when I listen to it (maybe outside of Sk8er Boi), whereas I think even though UMS and TBDT are also great albums, they sound very of their time.

UMS is a little too monotone and has some of the weakest lyrics she’s ever written. TBDT would be my second choice for her “magnum opus” but I think it’s too bratty and outside of Girlfriend, I don’t think the general public remembers this album much. GL could have been a contender if it was written and produced a lot better. The writing is pretty bad in terms of lyrics and the production sounds half baked on most of the songs. The album is pretty boring too. She had an excellent idea to make this a singer songwriter acoustic album but it was executed poorly IMO. The addition of the Max Martin songs also ruins the vibe she was going for so it puts it out of the running. AL isn’t even a contender for obvious reasons. And HAW I think would maybe be third on my list, but I think the back half of the album isn’t strong enough, even though I like the songs. It also didn’t make much of an impact on the charts or have much critical acclaim, no hits to speak of. Outside of her fans, this was unfortunately a forgettable album for most people.

LG wins easily IMO.

I don’t think Let Go is her best work, i mean, it’s quite generic pop, and we know she had super minimum involvement in its lyrics, but it did set the foundation of who she was and what she represented. Not to mention it is the album that gave her a monstrous recognition across the entire world. It’s an album that marked a generation and inspired a whole new batch of pop-rock female artists. She did THAT.

Let Go is still my second favorite album of hers, I just feel UMS made her more of an “artist” in the sense that she started co-writing much harder and being 100% hands on with every aspect of the album. She started singing a lot better and playing more instruments live. As an artist, I feel she peaked in UMS. LG was actually very lackluster in terms of vocal performances and energy on stage. It’s more of a big corporate product with a slight pop-rock edge to it and a rebellious attitude. And I agree that if she hadn’t started with LG, she wouldn’t have had the impact nor the success she achieved even 7-9 years later.

Arguably TBDT is her personal magnum opus; the sound/vibe has become her signature one and she continues to embody that persona (MFP).

Let Go is her magnum opus, without a doubt. I’m not going to go into the importance that album had on Avril’s own career, as all that needs to be said is that it launched her into megastardom and gave her the platform as an artist that she still has today. The album also had a huge impact on both the music scene and pop culture. The era spawned countless Avril-lites (Skye Sweetnam, Katy Rose, Fefe Dobson, Ashlee Simpson, etc.) and helped to bring about a resurgence of the pop-rock genre to the mainstream. A huge artist like Katy Perry even admitted that her record label wanted her to practically copy Avril for her own debut, which she obviously refused to do. In terms of culture, she inspired waves of young people to dress like her and gave voice to a lot of teens and young adults who weren’t finding that voice from acts like Britney Spears (hence Avril being coined the “Anti-Britney”). When an average person hears the name Avril Lavigne, they likely think of Let Go era Avril, the skater girl in heavy eye make up whose wearing a wifebeater and necktie. Obviously Avril’s other albums are important in terms of her career, although Let Go and the album’s singles will make up a huge portion of Avril’s legacy.

Edit: Forgot to mention that huge acts today like Billie Eilish have specifically given the album a lot of praise. While Billie is a huge fan of Avril in general, she cited “Losing Grip” as her favorite Avril song and mentioned all of the Let Go singles by name in the same interview.

I agree with this. I love Let Go. It's her biggest album and her most fun 1, too. But HAW is her most important 1 and it's the most personal in a way. Especially knowing all she went through and how she came up with the HAW song idea, too. She had literally hit bottom and that's when some of the best ideas and songs come about.