Having known of Good Charlotte for quite a while and finding some of there previous material quite good I don’t know what I expected from this album. But I didn’t expect an album full of the same beat, standard guitaring and lyrics which are just lacking inspiration(Even if thy do have meaning).

GC are one of the bands which have largely promoted pop punk(along with the likes of busted) and not the good kind of pop punk either(Like Not By Choice and New Found Glory) but the kind of pop punk which has a fan base of 12 year old girls who scream for the front man and think they are right rebels for listening to this kind of music.

The singing is this album is very exaggerated, the singers voice has become a lot more annoying then it was in the previous album. The lyrics seem to have meaning and in a couple of songs the lyrics are really good but a lot of them are just lacking inspiration.

I was told that this entire album was recorded with a session drummer, im not sure how true this is, but if it was it would not surprise me. It would explain the way the drum beat is exactly the same through every song in the album, apart from one song. The beat would be OK if it was just one song but its practically the entire album and its very annoying!

The guitaring is nothing more the standard. Very standard and typical. The guitars just produce a wall of sound and you cant really pick anything specially out of the guitaring or the riffs, what attempts the guitarists make at a solo are poor. Never the less the acoustic version of “The Day That I Die” shows that the guitarists are capable of playing well and it seems like the rest of the band and the bands style restrains this.

Here is a break down of all the different songs.
1)The Anthem
Well it’s a catchy song, and seems like a promising start to the album until about 40 seconds on, when it just becomes rubbish and it makes the jump from punk to pop. It’s a happy song and nice to listen to but its rubbish. All the guitaring is standard, the drumming stands out.

2)Lifestyles of The Rich And Famous
Like the last song it is nice to listen to and it is catchy, but after hearing a thew to many times it becomes extremely annoying. The drum beat is pretty much the same all the way through and the guitaring isn’t exactly great. Its just really annoying.

3)Wondering
This song is again catchy and very annoying. The singing gets in your head, all the instruments are played standard and nothing really sticks out. Out of the choruses this song is at times half decent though the chorus and most of the song is just annoying!!!

4)The Story Of My Old Man
This song is just like the last three, slow quite in places and the same beat and guitar style all over again. At least the lyrics seem to have meaning, the singer sings about his “Old Man” and how you should hope not to be like him.

5)Boys And Girls
I don’t know how many of you reading this have heard this song. In my opinion the lyrics are annoying, boring and severely lacking inspiration “Girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money”. Well at least the beat and the riffs have changed from the previous two songs.

6)My Bloody Valentine
This track has a noticeable improvement on the previous song. The music has lost its popish edge to it. Still the beat is just the same and guitaring is not that much better. This song is pleasing to listen to and is quite a good mood raiser(especially after the previous songs).

7)Hold On
This is one of the better songs on the album, it seems to have meaning and is quite uplifting. The beat is actually different to the previous songs on the album which is nice. The lyrics basically say when your upset, depressed, tired and down you should hold on.

8)Riot Girl
Just as you think that annoying beat that’s been used all the way through the album so far has gone, this song it played. At times the song seems good and has a nice punk feel to it, but then the annoying lyrics ruin it and the way it breaks just as the song gets going is a tad annoying. There’s and attempt at a guitar solo in this song which doesn’t really work.

9)Say Anything
This song is quite nice actually, its not trying to be something it is not as some of the previous songs do. It has a nice acoustic touch to it and is nice slow and gentle, the lyrics are something that a lot of people could relate to and the lyrics are quite soothing and nice, then when the chorus comes bass and electric guitar come in along with violins and it sounds very nice. This is a nice song.

10)The Day That I Die
The version I have of this song is acoustic, apparently the actually song isn’t :-s. Either way it’s a nice song and its nice to have an acoustic song on the album. The lyrics are sung in a nice manor and you get a taste of what Good Charlottes old Music style was like. The guitaring is nice and gives a sample of what the guitarists are capable of.

11)The Young And The Hopeless
Its that flipping beat again, back with vengeance. Never the less this is another song which is very pleasing to listen to, namely because it keeps a nice punk edge to it all the way through. It’s a good song and is quite uplifting.

12)Emotionless
This song is another acoustic, its good , however the acoustic is simply not as good as it was on previous albums. The lyrics have meaning and you can sympathise with what the front man is singing about. The chorus has violin and keyboard in It and its quite nice.

13)Moving On
Well after this album a lot of people will want to be moving on. This is a good song and makes me feel quite happy, whether it makes me happy cause the album has finished or cause it sounds pleasing is questionable. The beat strays from the typical beat the album have and so do the guitars, it’s a nice punk catchy song to end a very standard album.

The consistency of all 13 tracks is really quite poor. There are two maybe three good songs on this album and the rest (although sometimes pleasing to listen to) are just annoying and very popish.

The tracks and the albums seem to lack originality, the pop punk style seems to be quite original initially however the entire album sounds exactly the same and the little originality that the style had is soon lost.

The good songs on this album potentially have a good shelf life and are nice to listen to every once in a while, only problem is when you listen to them you may well accidentally listen to the other tracks which are definitely best forgotten.

Compared to other bands of this style GC actually seem good. I mean at least they actually play there own instruments…..unlike Busted and at least the singer doesn’t have annoying big eyebrows and dance around on stage like he has a cactus up his bottom…..like busted.

I own this bands previous album and while I did not think it was great I did think is was good, it had meaning, the guitaring and drumming varied and it had some very nice acoustic songs in it. The bands last album gave me quite a lot of respect for this band and I expected great things from them. However instead of great things they provided us with this album, buy their old album, not this one.

Thanx for reading

Edd:-)