Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival
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Free Music Notes for Good Morning Revival
Free Music Review: A guilty pleasure
Hit: 3 Stars
This is the type of band thats a guilty pleasure. Most young kids don't realize that these bands today are inferior to the earlier bands of the 90's. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of excellent bands out there, but everybodys a sell out today. This is a good album.Free Music Review: what happened?
Hit: 3 Stars
Im a long time fine of GC but chronicles and this dont come anywhere near the level of young and the hopeless. i accept change but this change was for the worse.Free Music Review: Good Charlotte...Where Are We Going On THIS Parade?
Hit: 2 Stars
Good Charlotte was always a band that I'd enjoy most of their singles but never went out and bought a ton of their CDs. I don't know, I thought Joel Madden wasn't really all that great of a vocalist and the band was pretty much at-the-moment pop-punk, which is fine, but it just didn't give a straight-forward appeal. Their last album before this, The Chronicles of Life & Death (Life Art Version), didn't do so hot when critics and fans had mixed things to say about the album, and although it did sell 600,000 copies, for the most part, Good Charlotte is a band that has a very dedicated fan-base. The singles didn't do well, either. To add on, this album's release date kept getting pushed back, first June 2006, then February 2007, now March 2007. Well, I can't argue, since I see why. Good Morning Revival sounds like three words a band with about a decade in the game should not be tagged as: identity-less, uninspiring, and flat.
According to the dictionary, a revival is a restaging of a former hit play at a later date. Well, that's the biggest problem of the album Good Morning Revival. It sounds like it is a restaging of other bands' successes. The problem clearly evident throughout the album is Good Charlotte has some serious identity problems. The production is all right, it's just boring and tired. This album just sounds too much like a debut than something that is released almost a decade after your group has started out. "Dance Floor Anthem", for example, sounds like Hellogoodbye meets Simple Plan, with it's synth-heavy beat sounds and overall track rock sound (Hellogoodbye) with whinny, almost intolerable vocals from band member Joel Madden and very emo lyricism of wanting to just be alone (Simple Plan). More sound-alikes continue with the Killers-like "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl", which sounds exactly like "When You Were Young". Only this time comes in the childish lyrics of Joel wanting to beat up the guy cheating with his girl. Not to mention again the raunchy, almost annoying vocals that are made to sound like they're coming through a voice box. "A Beautiful Place" also jacks the Killers-sound, this time sounding like a rip-off of "All These Things That I've Done", which has the same Western vibe, the same synths. Same problem with "March On". It makes me wonder if they tried to get the Killers vibe since Sam's Town was disappointing at best. Unfortunately, when GC tries this new formula, they come out looking washed-out and just plain pale, and so monotonous to a point that makes you want to listen to the Killer's debut album Hot Fuss to see how much they've tried to use on Good Morning Revival. More attempt of trying something with a new brand of shoes is "Victims of Love", which has yet again the synth-rock sound of Hellogoodbye. It's pretty embarrassing when they've developed somewhat of a "signature sound" while Good Charlotte is still tweaking theirs to make them stand out at the CD shop. But, that's not to say Good Charlotte has all bad cuts, like the latter has a good guitar riff and a nice melody to listen to, and vocals are very on-point. But it's the fact that other bands have done what they are calling a "new sound", and better. There's also times where Good Charlotte uses already dead formulas, like in "Break My Heart" which sounds just like their single "I Just Wanna Live", only a little bit softer with again more of the synth-vibe. There are also appeals of the "ska" sound that Gwen Stefani left behind with her band, like "Broken Hearts Parade" which takes a fairly basic pop-punk sound and turns it into pop-ska. Although this sounds fairly unconvincing, the song actually does work and it's amazing after all these sound-alikes we finally get to a song that is original and a breath of fresh air.
Subject matter also slumps a bit, like the weak ballad "Where Would We Be?", which is a song to Joel Madden's ex-girlfriend Hilary Duff. It's bad enough break-up songs exist, but even worse when you make it out to someone. (This formula never works, ask Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck.) And really too many songs are all about break-ups and relationships, like "Break Her Heart" which is a boring tale about a guy with a girl that is treating her harshly, and "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" which is a lame song about Joel beating up anyone that talks to his girl. There are also "we hate love" songs, like the aforementioned "Victims of Love", which is a complaint about how Joel is a victim of fake love. There's also "Something Else" (How non-aptly titled can you get?), which is an odd song about Joel wanting to do thinks he likes while his girlfriend wants something else. It starts with Joel wanting to eat at a restaurant while his girl doesn't want to eat at the restaurant because people will stare at her, and it basically goes downhill after that. There's also a ton of completely odd topics, like "All Black" which is a bore-fest about having girls, having black cars, and black cash. The song also doesn't make any sense because there's no such thing as black cash. It seems to be a replanted version of "Girls & Boys", only Good Charlotte brags about having these items instead of saying which gender likes what item. It's kind of like that song that wants to have the "Hollaback Girl" video with all black and all guys. And the emo sounding "Misery" about disliking plastic-looking girls and another "we hate the world" song that is just uninspiring and flat. Vocally this album is also not all that great. Joel Madden has vocals much like those of Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan. Now, both Madden and Bouvier have alright vocal range. It is the way they use them that is bothersome; they yell too much, and sound whinny too often. And Joel Madden does have many vocal screw-ups throughout the album. Maybe nothing truly cringing, but nonetheless could've easily been avoided.
Overall, Good Morning Revival is just that. Too much revival of other sounds current bands have tried and not enough of that pop-punk, fun sound that Good Charlotte albums were so enjoyed for (see The Young & The Hopeless). Good Charlotte is trying to appeal to the crowd who is avoiding the old emo-pop scene and are liking more of a dance-pop sound of The Killers, Hellogoodbye, and Fall Out Boy. Therefore, Good Charlotte went out of their way to get out of the "pop-punk-emo" sound. The unfortunate part is that they lost something original on the way. 2 stars.
Track Picks:
"The River"
"A Beautiful Place"
"Broken Hearts Parade"
Free Music Review: Good night, revival
Hit: 2 Stars
So it's been five years since Good Charlotte exploded with "The Young and the Hopeless" and filled up those arenas with thousands of screaming pre-teen girls. So this level of fame has depreciated, the screaming girls have moved on to the next big thing, like Fall Out Boy or Panic! at the Disco or My Chemical Romance, whatever it may be. The only people that are really still listening to Good Charlotte are the people that either knew them before "The Young and the Hopeless" or the people that got turned onto them because they genuinely liked the music, not just because it was the next big thing.
So this CD is probably going to disappoint anyone who fits into either of those categories. Let's face it, if you loved the catchy pop rock of Good Charlotte from 5 years ago, if you loved songs like "Little Things" "The Click" and the all too popular "The Anthem" then you probably won't find too much on this CD. Once again the album, like its predecessor, suffers from the experimentation with a million different sounds in an attempt to fit the mainstream bill, and once again it fails. Once again there is a rap song on the CD, and once again the fans will listen to it and wonder why they let the name "Good Morning Revival" fool them. The only thing that was revived on this album is the same garbage that the fans put to bed when they put "The Chronicles of Life and Death" on their shelves to collect dust.
There are a few good songs, so I won't totally dismiss this. "Misery" is okay and a little catchy and "Dance Floor Anthem" is not that bad, but they're not the songs that make you wanna get up and jump, they're more songs that might get you to bob your head a bit, they just don't have the energy. Lyrically this album is not fun at all, it's way too serious and dismal at times. They are good lyrics, don't get me wrong, the lyrics are very thought provoking and many times I thought to myself "Whoa, yeah, I feel the same way but never knew how to word it" mainly on songs like "Victims of Love" and "Break Apart Her Heart" However, they're not the upbeat fun lyrics that we got on songs like "Riot Girl" "East Coast Anthem" and "Waldorf Worldwide" Finally, the instrument work isn't all that interesting and let me tell you, slowing down a three chord progression and turning it into a ballad, isn't fun to listen to. It's rather bland.
Basically, success destroyed this band and this CD proves that "The Chronicles" wasn't just a fluke. This band is no longer fun to listen to and I don't believe they ever will be, so if you're a fan of the upbeat pop-rock then I would stick with their first two CDs and bands like MXPX and Less Than Jake.
Notice I wrote a whole review without debating whether or not Good Charlotte is punk. Get over yourselves people.
Free Music Review: This Band Has an Identity Problem
Hit: 2 Stars
I wanted to like this record, I really honest to God did. I got excited when I heard it was coming out soon, but upon listening to it I am very dissapointed.
To sum things up, Good Charlotte don't know who they are anymore. It's one thing to experiment different genres, and it's another to completely rip off other bands and pretend it's your own. Track 6, Victims of Love, takes its pre-chorus melody straight from Tatu's mega hit "Not Gonna Get Us". Listen to the song around 40 seconds into it and you'll see what I mean. Closing song, "March On" rips the lead guitar riff from the Killers' recent hit "All These Things That I've Done", and most blatant of all is how they rip off Coldplay. Track 7, "Where Would We Be", uses the exact same piano riff as Coldplay's monster hit "Clocks" does for the chorus. Track 10, "Beautiful Place", is a direct plagarism on "Beautiful World". There is no difference in the music, and the chorus, "We live in a beautiful place" is a direct copy on "We live in a beautiful world."
There is some truly original stuff in here (unless I'm missing something) like Broken Hearts Parade, and the River, but it's not enough to cover up the fact that Good Charlotte sounds confused and desperate for success. Bringing the guys from Avenged Sevenfold on board for the River - easily the best song on here - shows that they are trying to regain their rock credibility, but the fact that of the matter is that "Good Morning Revival" is not much of a rock record. It leans way more towards brit pop. This band just doesn't know who they are. On the track "Misery" Joel complains about "plastic" and "shallow" people, yet he is dating Nicole Richie - how hypocritical is that.
The arrival of Good Morning Revival is a sad day for Good Charlotte because they've become everything that people pegged them as - wannabes and cheap rip offs. Sorry guys, but this band has become the Kevin Federline of Rock 'N Roll.