Where does Good Charlotte go?

Everybody got used to opinion that Good Charlotte is a punk band. But is it really so? Judging by their appearance, yes. They've a lot of tattoos and piercing, they even have typical hairs. But a musical component makes you reconsider views upon this band. Overall, their new album Good Morning Revival sounds like an appropriate continuation of a previous one. It became much more pop and much less punk. In fact, a tendency for commercialization was visible even on their 2002's really popular album Young and The Hopeless, but now this process has reached its culmination. Don't misunderstand this; nobody is going to blame anyone. Musicians love money too. But the question is what results it may bring? Good Charlotte may be very helpful in searching for the answer. Actually there is no need to search anything; we may just watch what happens to the band. Good Morning Revival is still pop punk album, but in a very simplified form. It is cheerful, unpretentious, flavored with synthesizers and pop rock rhythmic, and quite capable to attract your attention and convince you that Good Charlotte is a good band to listen to.    

Good Morning Revival has songs for old fans

Let's start with good sides of the album. In terms of production work everything's fine, the record sounds powerfully enough. May be they do strive to pop music but punk spirit and youngster's valor is still here. River is one of the best songs made up in the vein of their former works. Its simple, uncomplicated but it hooks you up. This is just that very case when something bright and memorable obscurely comes out of three ordinary notes. The band dives into experimenting from time to time. Keep Your Hands Off My Girl is something you can't predict. This is a very unusual song for pop punk. The recipe is as follows: four-four time, recitative with distortion effect on, overloaded bass against synthesized sounds background and straightforward guitars in the chorus. It is simple again but the song gained a share of cold punk aggression. And this actually coincides with the lyrics where Joel Madden promises to beat up everyone who comes close to his girl. The lyrics are silly but if the aim was to correlate the song's atmosphere and words than these guys coped with the task gorgeously. Than it is worth mentioning Broken Heart's Parade - a mid tempo punk hit with ska flavor, March On and All Black – a teenager's half anthem made up after five years old pattern.                    

Good Morning Revival – a dangerous path

Now, let's dwell upon disadvantages, which are not a rare thing here. First of all, Good Charlotte's stylistic experiments make this record to be more a compilation than an album. It becomes doubtless if they know their final destination. Sometimes they fall into undisguised sweetness of pop music like on Dance Floor Anthem, sometimes they replay their old ideas, sometimes they try to sing ballads. The only positive outlook in this approach is a birth of a new style called dance punk. Secondly, the songs remind you something too often. But this is half of a trouble - plagiarism prospers on the album. For example a verse of Victims Of Love was simply taken from Tatu’s song Not Gonna Get Us and Where Would We Be Now is a slightly overdone Coldplay's Clocks. And this is by the way a serious case already. They say the higher you get the more it hurts when you fall. And if we'll apply this to music world then we'll see that a pain of falling won't come at once but after everyone sees how and where exactly a once popular band crashed down. To make a long story short, Good Charlotte take a big risk to taste all the amenities of such a fall. It seems like they've lost their orientation in a chase after fame and came at the age of abyss blinded. Is it good or bad – a disputable question. In the end, the album is not hopeless and it will have its admirers for sure. But the way Good Charlotte has chosen may lead to disappointment of old fans, though they still got the chance to repair the situation.          

05.04.2007