Losing Grip 3:53

Complicated 4:04

Sk8er Boi 3:24

I'm With You 3:44

Mobile 3:31

Unwanted 3:41

Tomorrow 3:46

Anything But Ordinary 4:11

Things I'll Never Say 3:44

My World 3:27

Nobody's Fool 3:57

Too Much To Ask 3:46

Naked 3:29

 

In Autumn 2002, Avril Lavigne made her debut in the UK when single Complicated hit the top 3. The song was a huge hit and lead to the success of her debut album, Let Go, which eventually hit the top spot in January 2003. Top 10 singles Sk8er Boi and I’m With You followed as dido fourth top 30 hit, Losing Grip.

 

It was as close as you can get to a perfect debut era. Avril was marketed as an alternative to the pop princesses of the time and definitely capitalised on the skater culture popular with teenagers at the time. All my friends were skaters (I wasn’t because I’m the last person who should attempt anything on a skateboard) and we were all listening to Blink 182 and Green Day so Avril kind of slotted in there. I loved her singles at the time and was quite obsessed with the first two which seemed to be on repeat on MTV back in the day. This is a really string album even without the singles with Mobile and Unwanted packing so much attitude and even the same with slower songs such as Tomorrow.

 

If you believe conspiracy theories, Avril died during this campaign and was replaced with an look alike. That is of course rubbish and the real reason some dislikes Avril’s later output is because she did what most popular singers do and tweaked her sound in an attempt to stay relevant. For me, Let Go Avril is Avril Lavigne.

 

Any memories or thoughts to share?

 

The singles:

 

 

 

 

'Mobile' has a video too! It was never released at the time and eventually surface online years later. One of my absolute faves of Avril's :wub:

 

 

As for the singles, all four have held up great. 'Mobile' is my favorite album track followed by 'Unwanted' and 'Nobody's Fool'. It's just amazing now to look back and think Avril was only 16-17 when she recorded these!

I didn’t know Mobile had a video! It does happen sometimes with some album tracks, I guess.

I owned this album on CD at the time! Fond memories. ^_^

'Let Go' was the first ever studio album I bought on CD! I think 'Sk8er Boi' was my gateway into Avril and I became hooked on that song and wanted to hear more. I spammed the album so much that 'Too Much To Ask' skipping on my CD at one point is forever etched into my mind, so hearing it regularly feels weird :lol: she was one of the first artists I was really invested in, loved the next two albums so much as well. At one point I was in a tight-knit friendship group of three and we had pretty different music tastes but all had Avril in common!

 

My top favourites are: Losing Grip (love that grunge-type sound!), Complicated, Sk8er Boi, I'm With You (THAT bridge *.* this singles campaign was great), Unwanted and Anything But Ordinary but there's nothing I would skip here. I've definitely taken this album into adulthood - got a white limited edition vinyl a few years ago :heart:

I also bought that on CD back on the day, cos I was kinda obsessed with I'm with You,

which is one of the best ballads ever

Thought the album was very patchy with the 4 singles being all incredible but the rest being pure filler

 

Looking at the chart peaks of the singles, I actually thought they all had charted higher

 

in the UK

Complicated/3

Sk8er boi/8

I'm with you/7

Losing grip/22

 

In the US

Complicated/2

Sk8er boi/10

I'm with you/4

Losing grip/64