Over the course of their musical career, Good Charlotte has jumped on almost every major musical trend. Their first album (arguably their best album) was upbeat and infectious with pop-punk goodness. The next two albums that followed tried to go the “dark and goth” image route, which brought on major success but left them with little cred. On their fourth and latest album, Good Morning Revival, this four-piece have jumped on the latest trend, which is the synth/dance-punk movement. How does this work out for them? Well, as this very site’s webmaster puts it: “Good Charlotte has lost it.”
After hearing the first few tracks of the album, it's painfully obvious that Good Charlotte is grabbing ideas from other bands. “The River,” which is the first single, is tolerable because it sounds so much like Alkaline Trio, but the use of M. Shadows (of Avenged Sevenfold) totally ruins the song. Songs like “Dance Floor Anthem” and “Misery” fall flat on their face. “Keep Your Hands Off My Girl” and “Victims Of Love” are laughable, as they sound like night-club reject songs. “All Black” tries its best to be chilling with its pipe organ intro, but all that is lost when the music kicks in. And how can you take lyrics like “Take a look at my life/All black/take a look at my clothes/all black,” seriously when you see pictures of the Madden boys eating at posh restaurants, spending millions of dollars, and going out to trendy night clubs with their model girlfriends? Give me a break, guys. The rest of the album is equally hilarious, as you can’t keep a straight face during the sappy “Where Would We Be Now” or the country twang of “Beautiful Place.”
In the end, every chord of music played, every note on the keys hit, and every lyric sung by Good Charlotte is completely bogus. The lyrics are hypocritical, the music watered-down versions of other bands that do it better, and the enjoyability of the album is the equivalent to my 6-month checkups at the dentist’s office. Those well-versed in music will be able to hear the fakeness of this album from a mile away, but for those on the fence, please, spend your cash on a good pop album, like the new Sherwood album. But, check it out for yourself, but this review will serve as your only warning. Really, I thought Good Charlotte would bounce back from 2004’s horrible, The Chronicles Of Life And Death, but they’ve fallen to a new low. Revival my ass.
Now I'm not a fan of Good Charlotte, but this review is a sham. Have you offended Tate or something? You drop in preferable remarks for him twice in the review: 'Well, as this very site’s webmaster puts it: “Good Charlotte has lost it.”' and 'please, spend your cash on a good pop album, like the new Sherwood album'. The latter is especially unnecessary.
I've read your reviews before and I've taken a lot out of them; they've been insightful, like most of the reviews here, and absolutepunk is on my daily reviewerati website roundup, along with Pitchfork, Stylus and Drownedinsound. There are plenty of people who thought The Chronicles of Life and Death wasn't awful - and yes, I'm well aware that reviewing without its subjectivity is useless.
GREAT REVIEW in it's own right of fore-warning. Owned Alt Press'....I actually saw 30 seconds of the video (never say m. Shadows though) and thought about giving this album a shot. Nevermind.
This is more like a rant than a review. I'm listening to the album for the first time now and, yeah, it sounds pretty bad but you could at least back up your points. Reviews like this just make people who like the band angry.
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