Lavigne’s latest effort is getting under buyers’ skin

Avril Lavigne, the 19-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter who brought a touch of edginess to the teen pop scene two years ago with such hits as “Sk8er Boi,” entered the national sales chart at No. 1 on Wednesday after her sophomore album, “Under My Skin,” sold 381,000 copies in its first week in the stores.

In reviewing “Under My Skin” in The Times, Richard Cromelin noted, Lavigne “owes much of her role as a waifish, punk-lite alternative to packaged pop stars, but she’s sounding as genre-bound in her way as the synthetic singers she was supposed to be a relief from.”

Another new release, masked metal rockers Slipknot’s “Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses),” entered the chart at No. 2, pushing Usher’s No. 1 “Confessions” to No. 3. The Usher CD had topped the chart for eight of the last nine weeks.

The Slipknot collection sold 243,000 copies, while Usher sold another 197,000. That figure pushes the sales total of “Confessions” to 3.8 million, the most of any release this year.

Other 2004 releases that have sold more than 1.5 million copies: Norah Jones’ “Feels Like Home” (3 million), Kenny Chesney’s “When the Sun Goes Down” (2 million) and Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” (1.7 million).

George Michael’s “Patience” showed impressive strength in its second week in the stores, moving from its first-week spot of No. 29 (36,000 sales) to No. 12 this week (62,000).