Bands like Good Charlotte make it really easy for you. You hate them or you love them. They don’t leave that much space in between. How else can it be when you make this kind of music? I always found it a strange band as their image is so conflicting with their output. I mean, they look like white (gothic) trash but sound like Hanson. Part because of that, it looks like they sold their selves to the industry. It’s just misleading. As they don’t do that what they want to do. Like you want to get rich, you want to get famous, let’s start a band and make whatever people want to hear. You think that all that jewelry, Louis Vuitton bags, tattoos etcetera come for free?

 

On the other hand, some bands just like to make crap music. I mean, if you’d listen to My Bloody Valentine or Converge for example…..now that’s not normal. The fact is, Good Charlotte makes mainstream pop. It’s simple and plain. It’s catchy and easy to listen. Because of that it all seems like they went straight for the easy money / fame.

 

On their DVD that I recently reviewed (link here) they say the following: “We’re trying to make that record that everyone can listen to. We’re trying to make that record the whole world could sing. Key elements like dynamics, pop sensibility and a hook will always be there.”

 

So they’re not lying about it. It’s just so easy for us to hate a band because of their mainstream vision. You could also see them as a sort of entrepreneurs. It’s the same as with that tv show Idols. I totally hate it! But business wise, it’s genius. So Good Charlotte has a goal and they enjoy what they do. And yeah, you can say it’s cheap or whatever. But hey, if it works and you’re happy doing it….

 

There’s is a market for Idols and there’s a market for Good Charlotte. They have thousands of fans who identify themselves with Good Charlotte. So they’re good at what they do. Better said; successful at what they do. Good is subjective and probably the issue/ subject of the removed review. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that we sometimes need to approach things in a different way. I tried to understand Good Charlotte’s motivation. Sure it’s not mine and I wouldn’t be happy doing it. But I won’t judge them for doing it.

 

But this is not about judgement. It’s about if you like their music or not. Well, do I really have to describe their music? To me this third record, titled Good Morning Revival, is just another Good Charlotte record. I don’t have much material to compare it with, but like said before; it’s pop, it’s easy listening, it’s mainstream. They indeed use all these elements. Every song got pop sensibility and has got a hook. That makes it possible that these songs might stick into you head for hours.

 

There are some nice songs on this record. If you can dig the poppy sound Good Charlotte has, you can probably dig 70% of this record. It starts okay but gets worse in the end. The first songs like ‘Misery’ for example, are quite energetic and rocking. Even M. Shadows and Synyster Gates from Avenged Sevenfold join the band on ‘The River’. So the first part of Good Morning Revival is not so bad at all.

 

But from ‘Keep Your Hands Of My Girl’ it just gets worse. ‘Beautiful Place’ sounds like a bad Coldplay imitation to me. ‘Something Else’ is over the top sweetened. ‘Broken Hearts Parade’ sounds like it’s only made to shout along and ‘March On’ is a sleep-inducing closure of the record.

 

This makes it a bit difficult for me to give it a score. I don’t like their music much. I don’t hate it but I wouldn’t listen to it in my spare time. But it’s well written, well produced etcetera. So, I’ll just give it a 5,5, hoping that giving it an average score is justified because of these reasons. But I’m very interested in your score. So shout it out!

 

Love,

Maurits