Under My Skin (Avril Lavigne album)

Under My Skin
Studio album by
Avril Lavigne
ReleasedMay 21, 2004 (2004-05-21)
RecordedOctober 2003 – January 2004
Studio
  • NRG Recording Services (North Hollywood, CA)
  • Ocean Way Studios (Hollywood, CA)
  • Ruby Red Productions (Atlanta, GA)
  • Satellite Park (Malibu, CA)
  • Skyline Studios (New York, NY)
  • The Boat (Los Angeles, CA)
  • Whitecoat Sound (Malibu, CA)
  • Ocean Studios (Burbank, CA)
Genre
Length40:47
Label
Producer
Avril Lavigne chronology
Avril Lavigne: My World
(2003) 		Under My Skin
(2004) 		The Best Damn Thing
(2007)
Singles from Under My Skin
  1. "Don't Tell Me"
    Released: March 15, 2004
  2. "My Happy Ending"
    Released: June 14, 2004
  3. "Nobody's Home"
    Released: October 25, 2004
  4. "He Wasn't"
    Released: March 28, 2005
  5. "Fall to Pieces"
    Released: April 18, 2005

Under My Skin is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. It was released firstly in Europe on May 21, 2004 then it followed the release in the rest of the world on May 25, 2004 by Arista Records and RCA Records. Lavigne wrote most of the album with singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who invited her to a Malibu in-house recording studio shared by Kreviazuk and her husband Raine Maida, where Lavigne recorded many of the songs. The album was produced by Maida, Don Gilmore, and Butch Walker. It is Lavigne's second and final studio album to be released on Arista, following Let Go (2002). It was also her first album for RCA.

Under My Skin debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and on the US Billboard 200. It sold three million copies in the United States, ranking the album number 149 on the Billboard 200 decade-end chart.[1] Because of the album's darker, heavier, more aggressive vibe reminiscent of post-grunge and more melodic rock songs, it received generally positive reception from critics at the point of considering it as one of the classic albums that defined pop-punk music in the early 00s (despite it not being usually classified as such),[2] and also one of the works that anticipated the emotional intensity and theatrical aesthetics of emo pop music in the mainstream.[3][4] On March 18, 2013, Under My Skin was re-released as a double-disc set paired with her debut studio album, Let Go, which was released under Arista Records. To promote the album, Lavigne went on a promotional tour for malls in the United States and Canada. Furthermore, Lavigne embarked on a concert tour, entitled the Bonez Tour, starting on September 26, 2004, and ending one year later on September 26, 2005. The concert at the Budokan arena in Japan was filmed and released on a DVD only available in Japan, entitled Bonez Tour 2005: Live at Budokan. Under My Skin has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and is the fifth best selling album of the 21st century by a Canadian artist.[5]

Critics described Under My Skin as post-grunge,[6][7][8][9][10][11] alternative rock,[12] and nu metal[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] containing some gothic rock,[20] grunge,[21] folk rock,[22] and hard rock[22] influences.

  1. ^ "Billboard.BIZ". February 4, 2011. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  2. ^ Mandel, Leah (October 8, 2019). "Everything old is new: Unpacking the pop punk revival". Mic. Retrieved October 10, 2019. It was at its commercial height in the early aughts; Simple Plan's Still Not Getting Any..., Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin, Paramore's Riot, My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade, and many other classics defined the era.
  3. ^ Bradley, Jonathan (2018). "'It's Not Like We're Dead': The Fascinating Evolution & Non-Linear Maturation of Avril Lavigne, Motherf--king Princess". Billboard. Retrieved December 1, 2019. While emo crossover acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance would remain an underground concern for at least another six months, Under My Skin anticipated that scene's emotional intensity and theatrical aesthetics in the mainstream.
  4. ^ Phillips, Marian (May 14, 2020). "20 ESSENTIAL 2004 ALBUMS THAT PROVED THE SCENE WAS HERE TO STAY". Altpress. Retrieved June 12, 2020. In her second album, Under My Skin, Avril Lavigne showed an all new side to her music. Much more complex than her first album, it featured darker concepts of feeling lost and alone, such as "Nobody's Home." With deeper emotional lyrics and a punk-rock sound, Lavigne moved beyond her teenage pop-punk persona and matured into a fully fledged alternative music icon.
  5. ^ Fulton, Rick (January 10, 2011). "Avril Lavigne: Madonna is my idol". Daily Record. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  6. ^ Cox, Jamieson. "Avril Lavigne: Let Go Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 17, 2018. Lavigne has never struck gold in the same way, veering back and forth between surly post-grunge (2004's sophomore effort Under My Skin
  7. ^ http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/features/avril-lavigne-to-make-a-bratty-return/ the sophomore record showcased a "post-grunge" element to the music.
  8. ^ http://www.erasingclouds.com/wk205yearin5rev.html "Under My Skin is one of the most successful releases of 2004 in any genre, doing exactly what it was supposed to do: be insanely catchy while imitatively grungy, with guitars jingle-jangling..."
  9. ^ http://www.pop-buzz.com/just-music/avril-lavigne-8-best-deep-cuts/ Archived October 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Avril's angrier and darker second album had a post-grunge vibe to it that was totally fitting for the teen star
  10. ^ DeWald, Mike (September 17, 2019). "INTERVIEW: Avril Lavigne finds strength in her inner warrior for 'Head Above Water'". Riff Magazine. Retrieved July 9, 2020. The post-grunge-influenced Under My Skin (2004) featured empowering songs like "Don't Tell Me" and "Nobody's Home."
  11. ^ Assaly, Richie (June 27, 2024). "Avril Lavigne has been appointed to the Order of Canada. Here's why Canada's pop-punk princess still matters". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 28, 2024. "Under My Skin" (2004), Lavigne adopted a darker and heavier sound, pivoting away from pop-punk towards the alt-rock/post-grunge sound of bands like Evanescence and Nickelback.
  12. ^ http://www.spin.com/reviews/avril-lavigne-best-damn-thing-rca/ "as Lavigne began churning out the kind of dark alt rock that's usually associated with Amy Lee"
  13. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/9jp2 "Gilmore infuse the album with a nu-metal edge that might levitate this release from the ashes of forgettable rock... "
  14. ^ http://www.avclub.com/review/avril-lavigne-emunder-my-skinem-11438 "Under My Skin's fateful habit of falling toward a default doom-and-gloom mode. Mascara-streaked moods dictate an excess of ballads and rockers that trade in sterile nü-metal crunch, leaving Lavigne's pop-punk spunk by the wayside"
  15. ^ http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,631739,00.html Archived October 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine "complete with pop-metal guitar blasts à la Linkin Park"
  16. ^ http://www.music-critic.com/rock/lavigne_undermyskin.htm " And some stuff that sludges along dangerously using tricks learned from Swedish metal bands..." "...honestly sound like Swedish techno/metal band the Gathering"
  17. ^ http://www.hollywood.com/news/celebrities/55039969/worst-best-avril-lavigne-albums "Largely produced by Don Walker (Linkin Park), the nu-metal tinged Under My Skin was an attempt to establish Lavigne's serious artiste credentials"
  18. ^ [1] "...songs penned with her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld that sound the most like nü-metal." "...slightly reminiscent of Limp Bizkit, allows a droning guitar to represent despair until a driving chorus smashes through the fog to deliver a rousing punch."
  19. ^ http://www.ew.com/article/2004/05/28/under-my-skin " The production and songwriting verge on nü-metal, as if Lavigne and her handlers decided she needed to go harder and heavier to stay current."
  20. ^ "Early word on Avril Lavigne's new album". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  21. ^ "the guitars come in and there's a suitably grungy sound to work with" Archived December 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine[]
  22. ^ a b Pareles, Jon (2004). "MUSIC; The Solipsisters Sing Out Once Again". NY Times. Retrieved February 6, 2020. In Don't Tell Me, which builds from a folk-rock verse to a hard rock chorus like a Morissette song, she kicks out a guy who pressures her for sex: Don't try to tell me what to do/Don't try to tell me what to say, she sings.