Good Charlotte

Good Morning Revival

[2/5] A lot has changed since Good Charlotte released The Chronicles Of Life And Death in 2004. Bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy have made mall-punk not only mainstream but ubiquitous; Panic! At The Disco have made hi-hat-heavy, dance-driven pop-punk go platinum; and GC’s frontman Joel Madden managed to date a couple of A-list Hollywood celebutantes and even score a guest role in the film adaptation of Fat Albert.

All of these things directly contribute to Good Morning Revival. Whereas the band’s last album sounded like a musical identity crisis between Benji Madden’s purist punk attitude and Joel Madden’s decidedly dance-oriented jams, there’s nothing dangerous about their new release. The band have been leapfrogged by the upstarts they paved the way for, and are as lost as ever because of it. However, while the songs carry no bite and tracks like “Dance Floor Anthem” are unabashedly tailored for radio, the Maddens seem so sincere singing about Louis Vuitton that hating on them is the equivalent of picking on an 8-year-old for not having an expansive vocabulary.

The biggest problem with Good Morning Revival is the band take themselves way too seriously. The best example is the album’s first single, “The River.” On the surface, the song is a nearly perfect exercise in pop writing, featuring massive hooks, an instantly recognizable chorus and cameos from Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows on vocals and Synyster Gates contributing a guitar solo. However, you get the feeling Good Charlotte probably view it as an urban update of the Bruce Springsteen track of the same name-and, sorry, but you’re not going to pull that off when the first line is the heavy-handed “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of L.A.”

Other missteps occur when the group stray from the pop formula that’s gotten them this far. The hip-hop/dub-influenced “Keep Your Hands Off My Girl” is sonic evidence against cross-genre experiments; the piano-driven “Where Would We Be?” is sappy even by Good Charlotte’s standards; and the superfluous “A Beautiful Place” proves why xylophone and slide-guitar have never been staples in pop music.

While there are a few stellar moments on Good Morning Revival, like the killer groove on “All Black,” the song’s pandering lyrics that name-check everything from Johnny Cash to the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” ensure that it’ll never exist as anything deeper than a gimmicky pop song-and this typifies what’s wrong with the album as a whole. With Good Morning Revival, Good Charlotte have become caricatures of themselves (dude, you can’t complain about “plastic people” when you’re dating Paris Hilton’s best friend) who are trying so hard to please everyone that they don’t know who they are anymore.

Hands up: Who liked them better when they were young and hopeless? (EPIC/DAYLIGHT) Jonah Bayer

ROCKS LIKE:

Panic! At The Disco’s A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out

American Hi-Fi’s The Art Of Losing

Sugar Ray’s 14:59

TRACK LISTING

1. Good Morning Revival! (Intro)

2. Misery

3. The River

4. Dance Floor Anthem

5. Keep Your Hands Off My Girl

6. Victims Of Love

7. Where Would We Be?

8. Break Her Heart

9. All Black

10. A Beautiful Place

11. Something Else

12. Broken Hearts Parade

13. March On