Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival

Their multiple piercings, shaved heads, and abundant tattoos have them labeled a punk band, but on their fourth album, Good Charlotte--led by twin brothers Joel (lead vocals) and Benji (lead guitar) Madden--fall much more under the umbrella of 1970s arena rock and mainstream ballads. There is the occasional foray into the pop-punk mode of previous records, including the distorted-vocal rap "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl" and "Broken Hearts Parade," which sounds like Green Day with horns. It's easy to see the maturation in the Maddens' songwriting on such tracks as "The River," a surveillance of the inner workings of Los Angeles, the grass-is-greener pop song "Something Else," and "Where Would We Be," a break-up ballad about Joel Madden's split with pop princess Hilary Duff. With a piano lead and strident chorus, Madden admits, "Now I must confess that I'm a sinking ship/And I'm anchored by the weight of my heart." Browbeaten in theory, like sister songs "Misery," "Victim of Love," and "Break Her Heart," Good Morning Revival offers hints of optimism that grow with the record and reach the summit with the closing pop song, "March On." The harmonic chorus jubilantly declares, "Like soldiers we can make it through the night/We'll see the sun/March on." Whether punkers or mainstream rockers, it's apparent that Good Charlotte will continue the march. --Scott Holter Amazon.com

Emo-Turity

Oh, the pain of growing up. Good Charlotte have aged past the point where The Young and Hopeless would apply to them. And like so many bands in the pop-punk or emo genre, the genre is moving forward. The bands must evolve or perish. Some, like Green Day on American Idiot, gain perspective. Fall Out Boy found the funk on Infinity on High and Panic at The Disco looked back to the sixties for Pretty. Odd.

Good Charlotte seem to be ditching the manic energies of youth for "Good Morning Revival." Only a couple of times do the songs reach the adrenaline amperage of yore, like "Misery." But there's also the blatant Coldplay cop on "Beautiful World," and the Gorillaz-esque "Keep Your Hands Off My Girl." They no-longer seem like the Blink-182 obsessed high-school kids they started as, now they seem to be aiming for the audience attuned to Hot Fuss. The 80's buzz of "I Don't Want to Be In Love" would be cool if Good Charlotte weren't so darn serious about it.

"Good Morning Revival" is an album that was made by a band in transition. Joel and Benji Madden went from being snot-nosed punks to being Hollywood Gossip subjects. It's hard not to read Joel's tabloid-fodder dalliance with Hilary Duff into "Broken Hearts Parade" or the heartbreak ballad "Where Would We Be Now" (or the good boy loses to bad boy "Break Her Apart" tirade). However, it was their adolescent frenzy that made Good Charlotte interesting and "Good Morning Revival" sounds like they want to become another generic arena rock band. September 4, 2008

New Fan

The new sound Good Charlotte has taken with this album is wonderful, and this album is still one of my favorite cds of 2007. Simply awesome pop. June 12, 2008

Best yet from Good Charlotte

I've been a fan of Good Charlotte from the beginning. They have a specific trademark: their music has always been a reflection of where they are in life. When they started out, they were high school kids working through their parents' divorce and being excluded in gym class, cruising the streets and dreaming of stardom. Their music has grown with them and this album is a reflection of where they are now. The songs on GMR are well-written, catchy, and soulful. Of course their sound will change as they get older and learn more about music - if it didn't, we would be complaining that they never grew up.

Give it a listen. I was pleasantly surprised. These songs really are great. May 1, 2008

Good night, revival

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. April 30, 2008

Good Charlotte fan...save your money

I bought Morning Revival when it was first released, I was really exited to listen to it, I had waited a long time for them to release this CD. When I first put it into my cd player, I listened to the first few songs and was mortified. I remember that I turned it off after a few songs and put the CD away and didn't bring it back out until today when I was going through my CD collection to update my iTunes. I thought maybe I made a mistake so I just listened to the whole thing again. I still stand by my original judgment that the cd is horrible. I understand them may be trying to take thier music in a new direction, but this was the wrong direction to go. The songs had no rythm and I think Joel was out of tune throughout much of it. The only song that was bearable was Jealousy. If you are a fan of thier other music, I would not recommend to buy Morning Revival. Save your money, buy some Panic! At the Disco or some Fall Out Boy, much better than this. March 19, 2008

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