Let Go | ||||
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Studio album by Avril Lavigne | ||||
Released | June 4, 2002 | |||
Recorded | May 2001 – March 2002 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 48:41 | |||
Label | Arista | |||
Producer |
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Avril Lavigne chronology | ||||
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Singles from Let Go | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Blender | |
Entertainment Weekly | (B−) |
Melodic | |
Q | |
Robert Christgau | |
Rolling Stone | |
Slant Magazine | |
Stylus Magazine | (B) |
Let Go is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne, released on 4 June 2002. For a year after signing a record deal with Arista, Lavigne struggled due to conflicts in musical direction. She relocated to Los Angeles, California, and recorded there, her earlier materials for the album; the kind of sound to which the label was not amenable. She was paired to the production team The Matrix, who understood her vision for the album.
The album was credited as the biggest pop debut of 2002, and was certified 6× Platinum in the United States. It was released to generally positive reviews, although Lavigne's songwriting received some criticism. It also did extremely well in Canada, receiving a diamond certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association, as well as reaching multi-platinum in many countries around the world, including the UK in which she became the youngest female solo artist to have a number-one album in the region.
As of 2013[update], Let Go had sold over 20 million copies worldwide, becoming Lavigne's highest-selling album to date. According to Billboard magazine, the album was the number 21 top-selling album of the decade. A Rolling Stone readers poll named Let Go as the fourth best album of the 2000s. The album is considered as one of the albums that changed the pop punk music scene, because also helped to brought pop punk music into the mainstream, contributing to paved the way in the rise of female fronted pop punk bands and female-driven punk-influenced pop music.
On 18 March 2013, Let Go was re-released as a double disc-set paired with her second studio album, Under My Skin, which is released under RCA Records.