Everyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE Avril Lavigne. 2025 has been busy for my idol, from featuring on a track with rock legend Billy Idol, to embarking on the second edition of her Greatest Hits Tour, to releasing a song with fellow Canadian punk rockers Simple Plan, to headlining Warped Tour, to an appearance at the When We Were Young festival scheduled for October. Now that the Princess of Pop Punk’s 20-date North American tour has concluded, I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect back on her seven studio albums. Here is my ranking of all of Avril Lavigne’s albums, from worst to best!
Please note that this ranking is based entirely on my personal opinions and tastes with admittedly little objectivity.
7. Head Above Water (2019)
With a release in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic squashed all hopes of a Head Above Water tour. At the concerts Avril has had in the post-pandemic years, the only song she consistently plays off this album is the title song – and for good reason. Aside from the first three tracks, none of the songs on this album are anything to write home about. The album completely moves away from the rock genre, embracing pop instead. Multiple songs such as “Crush” and “Tell Me It’s Over” have a laid-back R&B sound to them that reminds me of LOLO (not to be confused with LØLØ). There’s even a song that features rapper Nicki Minaj, which is… a choice (though I can’t pretend it isn’t one of my most streamed songs on Spotify). For Avril’s highly anticipated return after fighting Lyme Disease and not releasing an album in six years, Head Above Water really fell short of expectations.
6. Goodbye Lullaby (2011)
Most of the songs on Goodbye Lullaby have more of a soft pop rock sound than the various punk styles that defined Avril’s first three albums. Several tracks are, dare I say, boring, and even the standout upbeat hits like “What The Hell” and “Smile” aren’t strong enough to outweigh the half-dozen forgettable lullabies. Most of this album is just too acoustic for my tastes. I will say, however, that “Alice” is an AWESOME song.
5. Avril Lavigne (2013)
Avril’s self-titled album is all over the place (but not necessarily in a bad way), from a nu metal song featuring Marilyn Manson to a Japanese-themed dubstep track (which received a lot of criticism). The album is also oddly sprinkled with summertime anthems, including “Bitchin’ Summer” and “Sippin’ On Sunshine.” Those songs are fun (albeit a bit generically pop), but what was Avril doing singing about the bell ringing on the last day of school at the age of 29? Reminiscing on her wild youth is a central theme here, evidenced by tracks like “17” and of course “Here’s To Never Growing Up.” On a positive note, though, “Give You What You Like” has a sultry sound that doesn’t appear in any of her other songs. And even the most skippable tracks on this album are far more fun to listen to than half the songs on Goodbye Lullaby, if you ask me.
4. The Best Damn Thing (2007)
Avril’s image experienced a significant shift from her first two albums to The Best Damn Thing: she traded t-shirts and cargo pants for miniskirts and neon pink highlights. The change was big enough to prompt a conspiracy theory that the “real” Avril had died and was replaced with a double at some point after Let Go and during Under My Skin. Even if this conspiracy is to be believed (which it isn’t), the “replacement” Avril sure put out some bangers! “Girlfriend” has made a comeback with Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z, to the point that kids who have never heard the name “Avril Lavigne” know the song (plus it’s also the only one of her songs to make it onto a Just Dance game). The overall vibe of this album is fun and sassy, with a couple powerful emotional moments via “When You’re Gone” and “Keep Holding On.”
3. Love Sux (2022)
It almost feels blasphemous to rank her newest album so high in favor of some of her older material, but Love Sux just goes so hard. Avril returns to the sassy pop punk of The Best Damn Thing but with a more modern sound. It’s rare for songs featuring other artists to appear on a studio album—in fact, prior to 2022 she only put out three of them (Marilyn Manson on “Bad Girl” and her then-husband Chad Kroeger on “Let Me Go” for her self-titled album, then Nicki Minaj on “Dumb Blonde” for Head Above Water); yet Love Sux contains tracks featuring rapper-turned-rocker mgk (“Bois Lie”,) alternative R&B artist blackbear (“Love It When You Hate Me”), and Mark Hoppus of the household name blink-182 (“All I Wanted”), as well as the English punk artist YUNGBLUD on the Deluxe edition (“I’m A Mess”). Of course I love to see her shine on her own, but I also enjoy seeing her collaborate with so many other musicians.
2. Let Go (2002)
This is the album that started it all; the album that didn’t simply put Avril Lavigne on the grid, but rather thrust her into superstardom. So many of the songs on Let Go are legendary: even people who only vaguely know Avril Lavigne by name have likely heard “Sk8er Boi” and “Complicated,” plus the powerful ballad “I’m with You” was sampled in a Rihanna song in 2010 as well as recently appeared on the Deadpool & Wolverine soundtrack. Personally, “Losing Grip” just might be my favorite song of hers to date. What keeps Let Go from ranking #1, however, is the presence of a couple less memorable tracks, namely “Mobile” and “Nobody’s Fool.”
1. Under My Skin (2004)
This album raised me. I can vividly remember listening to “Nobody’s Home” on my Sansa Shaker MP3 player and imagining music videos to “My Happy Ending” back in elementary and middle school. Under My Skin has a heavier, grungier sound than any of Avril’s other albums, leaning away from punk and more into alternative rock, though some songs such as “He Wasn’t” and “I Always Get What I Want” preview the upbeat pop punk sound we hear all over The Best Damn Thing three years later. This album may not have produced as many megahits as its predecessor, but in my opinion Under My Skin is Avril’s strongest collection of music ever.
