The Ultimate Avril Lavigne Rating 2022 - [Results]

So you mean to say she got worse with every album she released?Nah.Under My Skin is her best album.All albums are great except Head Above Water,which is just okay.Don't get my wrong,it does have good songs but stlll pales in comparison to her other albums.

Also, why should people be looking at music with "objectivity"? Isn't that the polar opposite of what music should be - subjective? Saying UMS doesn't have anything THAT special is another subjective opinion after all, and clearly a lot of people disagree with that, which is fine. One opinion isn't more valid than the other because they're both shaped by a collection of varied subjective and contextual reasons. You can state your opinion, but I don't get being dismissive of others' just because they don't mirror your own.

I personally think the body of work on UMS is some of her strongest as a whole. It's cohesive, it makes sense, it's impactful, the instrumentation is top notch, the production is amazing, the tone is just right, it's heavy, it's dramatic and a little dark, while also offering enough light moments to stop it from being repetitive. I love it after all these years and not just for the nostalgia.

Also, why should people be looking at music with "objectivity"? Isn't that the polar opposite of what music should be - subjective? Saying UMS doesn't have anything THAT special is another subjective opinion after all, and clearly a lot of people disagree with that, which is fine. One opinion isn't more valid than the other because they're both shaped by a collection of varied subjective and contextual reasons. You can state your opinion, but I don't get being dismissive of others' just because they don't mirror your own.

I personally think the body of work on UMS is some of her strongest as a whole. It's cohesive, it makes sense, it's impactful, the instrumentation is top notch, the production is amazing, the tone is just right, it's heavy, it's dramatic and a little dark, while also offering enough light moments to stop it from being repetitive. I love it after all these years and not just for the nostalgia.

I obviously don't want to invalidate your experiences, but I personally have never seen anyone arguing that she hasn't evolved as a vocalist over the years and I particularly have never seen someone saying the lyrics in UMS were her best. Even the people who love UMS often admit the lyrics were quite simple (as evidenced in this thread). So I'm not sure where you're coming from with that argument.

Your opinion is perfectly valid and you don't have to like UMS just because it's a fan favorite. I just don't agree with the implication that people only love UMS for nostalgia when, imo, there's a lot of enjoyment to be had with that album and the music in it is some of her strongest. At the end of the day we all have our own subjective reasons for liking what we like - which was sort of my whole point to begin with.

Head Above Water is too overrated to me. I do think it’s one of her stronger songs, and I’d probably include it among my 20 favorite songs from her, but I have to admit I appreciated it much more when it came out than now. I think it’s a song that hasn’t aged too well and doesn’t hold up to me. The production is missing something, it could’ve used louder guitars and the bridge could’ve been more polished before the epic buildup. I also think it’s too “Cristian” as well? I was born in a Cristian home, but I haven’t considered myself as such in many years, so I just don’t relate much to the song and I barely find myself hearing it anymore. I also have to be in a very particular mood to enjoy it.

I also think Birdie hasn’t aged too well either. Even though I loved it when it came out, I think IFILWTD is a much better track and probably my current favorite off that album. The guitars in Birdie are way too low, and I get the album needed that stripped down sound, hence why the instrumentation wasn’t on the foreground like her vocals, but it would’ve been much better that way. I still love Birdie, IFILWTD and HAW, but not as much as in 2019 when the album came out. What seemed like a tribute to her old music with this album now seems like a very watered down version of her more rock-influenced sound with the release of Love Sux. I guess I was just happy to hear a darker and more UMS-ish sound in those songs back in the day. I never imagined she’d come back to the pop-punk sound as she did in Love Sux, and that is why I think that almost even the weakest songs on this album are better than the rest of HAW and equally good as HAW, Birdie and Devil. (With the exception of LIWYHM and Kiss Me). I hope all this made sense lol.



I’m really glad Bite Me made it to the Top 10. I would’ve been even more satisfied with Avalanche making it to the Top as well, but we’ll see what happens next time!