POP MUSIC REVIEW

Avril Lavigne

"The Best Damn Thing" (RCA)

Lavigne lightens up, and the result is fun

IF any single song kicked off the tween-rock craze that made stars out of Ashlee Simpson and Aly & AJ, it was "Complicated," Avril Lavigne's smash 2002 single, in which the young Canadian singer presented herself as a gritty alternative to poised teen-pop glamazons like Britney Spears and Simpson's sister Jessica. In those days, Lavigne seemed like a trailblazer, a perception she shored up on 2004's "Under My Skin," a darker effort that delved deeper into teenage psychology than stuff by most of Lavigne's peers.

On "The Best Damn Thing," Lavigne comes off more like a follower than a leader. It's a consciously lightweight pop-punk romp that appears to have been inspired by "Since U Been Gone," Kelly Clarkson's massive hit. Fortunately, inspirations don't get much better than "Since U Been Gone," whose precision-geared exuberance Lavigne replicates perfectly in "Girlfriend" and "I Can Do Better," both produced by Dr. Luke, one of the mixing-board magicians behind the Clarkson tune.

In interviews, Lavigne has demurred from suggestions that the new album's more upbeat tone is a product of her marriage last year to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley (who produced "Contagious"). But her denials aren't very convincing: In "Innocence," one of the disc's ballads, she describes feeling safe for the first time in her life, while "I Don't Have to Try" lets us know that in the Lavigne-Whibley home, she's "the one who wears the pants." This isn't groundbreaking work, but it's great fun.

Mikael Wood

*

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Albums are rated on a scale of four stars (excellent), three stars (good), two stars (fair) and one star (poor). Albums reviewed will be released Tuesday.