Yeah, this one might seem a bit out of place for the guys who've been reading my blog since I started out. However, there is a valid reason behind looking at this album, as this is one of the albums that pretty much defined my teenage years. And I figured it'd be an interesting idea to return to this album to see how it stands up now, considering my taste in music has moved on from Good Charlotte's style of music and become more...well, if you've read this blog more than once before now, you probably know what my usual taste in music is.
Anyway, Good Charlotte are a pop punk from Maryland (which is also where All Time Low are from) that formed in 1996. They've had a fairly consistent line up since then, only replacing their drummer twice since forming and adding a guitarist (who also plays keyboards) a few years before they released their debut album. For this album, the band were using a session musician, Josh Freese (who you might recognise for later playing in Nine Inch Nails between 2005 and 2008). The rest of the band's line up (lead vocalist Joel Madden, guitarists Benji Madden and Billy Martin and bassist Paul Thomas) were still searching for a drummer after the departure of Aaron Escolopio, who left to join his brother in Wakefield (another band from Maryland who are believed to have broken up, as no information by them has been found since 2012), but they would later find Chris Wilson, who would leave the band in 2005 to join Summer Obsession (who broke up in 2010: hilariously, one of his predecessors in that band was Josh Freese!) and is now playing for Matt Toka (former lead singer of Cherry Monroe) in his solo project. He would be replaced by current drummer, Dean Butterworth, who you might know for drumming for Morrissey on his 2004 album You Are The Quarry.
For the most part, the album relies on short songs (the longest tracks on the album being only a bit over four minutes long) with fairly simple arrangements (in some cases, mostly being carried by Joel's vocals), catchy choruses (although I wouldn't say any of them really get to the highest levels of catchiness, like with All Time Low's "Time Bomb") and a lot of energy. So, fairly typical pop punk, at first glance. The thing that will ultimately make or break the band for you are two or three little details (aside from, you know, whether you like pop punk to start with).
Firstly, the lyrics of the band's songs can be more than a alienating when the Madden twins start to focus on their past and talk about that. Now, some artists can talk about their pasts in ways which are cryptic enough to appeal to people who haven't gone through what the artist has, but will strike a chord with those who have. Unfortunately, this isn't a gift Joel and Benji Madden possess, as they don't tend to pull any punches when they do this. Whether this is enough to label the band as emo or not will depend on what you consider to be emo and what you don't. I'd say that calling them emo is MAYBE a bit inaccurate, as it's not a topic they exclusively talk about in their music, but it's definitely there and your ability to take this kind of thing will depend on how view the band. Possibly the most blatant example is "Emotionless", which is an open letter to the brother's father who abandoned them as a kid. It's a very emotional song and you get the feeling that there's no anger intended behind it, but it's definitely a song that will annoy more than a few people and may be justified with the use of the skip button. The topic of their father walking out on them is also fairly noticeable in "The Story Of My Old Man" and, possibly to hammer home the fact that they are not making up what happened in their past, one of the lyrics in the title track is "When I sing about my past/it's not a gimmick, not an act". I personally don't have a huge problem with the guys talking about their past (heck, I didn't have the best childhood myself...), but a bit more subtlety would probably go a lot further for the guys for people who normally don't like this kind of thing.
Secondly, due to the fact that the arrangements can be very simple (even by punk standards), it's likely that people with a fondness for more complicated stuff than punk will be left wanting at best. And I'm not going to lie: when I look at this album critically and not in my usual mindset of just enjoying it for what it is, I do feel disappointed that there's not more to the songs than there is (although, in my case, the fact that I've recently developed a slight appreciation of progressive metal might have something to do with why I'm probably trying to look deeper than I should be for this type of record...). However, I would fairly say that, well, if you are playing pop punk, you're not really expected to try to go for especially deep lyrics or music with hidden complexity, as you're basically combining punk music (a genre not exactly known for musicians who are brilliant on a technical level) and pop music (which is mostly about writing the catchiest hooks you can, which CAN be very tough (as much as a lot of people like to claim otherwise...) to do well, but usually doesn't require a lot of technical ability to do well). Anything that is deep lyrically can probably be fairly considered a bonus if everything else is there. Which...leads me to my third issue.
The third issue is that a lot of the band's hooks are not the strongest ones you could ever hear. So, if you like your songs with very strong hooks, this might not win you over even if the other two issues I've highlighted don't strike you as a problem. You're not going to find anything with a hook on the level of "I Am The One And Only" by Chesney Hawkes (which I heard once and could remember for days, and still enjoy listening to it every now and then due to how cheerful I tend to get after hearing it!), if you get what I mean. This DOESN'T mean that there aren't any hooks in the band's songs, as they definitely have them, it's just that it might take a few listens to really start to enjoy the songs on the album.
All of the guys are definitely at least able to play their instruments (although, in the drummer's case, would you expect a guy who would go on to drum for NIN to be a bad drummer?). None of the guys are likely to win awards for their ability to play them, but they don't sound like they're struggling to play the songs on the record to me. Joel and Benji (who sings lead on "The Day That I Die" and the second verse of the title track) are decent vocalists, but aren't likely to be anyone's favourite vocalists by any measure. From a technical perspective, I'd say Joel is probably a better vocalist than quite a few pop punk vocalists, as his vocals are clean (if not especially powerful and still with roots in punk). He doesn't have an amazing range, but he definitely has one, as he sings noticeably lower at the start of "Say Anything". Benji's vocals are more punk based, but he's mostly restricted to backing vocals most of the time (except for the moments I've mentioned earlier), so you can miss him if you're not looking for him. The album is pretty well produced, although I do think that the bass could have maybe done with being a bit louder at point. It also is reasonably mastered, as it's loud enough to have some punch to it, but not so loud that you're going to want to turn it down for the sake of your ears.
So, putting my nostalgia aside for this album and looking at this album critically, I have to say that it's a good album. It doesn't really rise above being a good album, which stops me from saying that this will get people who have no interest in pop punk suddenly loving the genre, but, for the genre it is in, it's an enjoyable album that fans of the genre will at least come out of feeling satisfied. If you just want to pick up a pop punk album to listen to get an idea of what the genre is like, you could do far worse than pick this up. It's not the best example of the genre by any measure, but it's certainly not the worst example of the genre. I wouldn't say this album stands up well compared to how I remember it, but I still enjoyed reviewing it!
Final rating: 6 out of 10
A decent album that won't win over those with no fondness for the genre, but fans of the genre should enjoy.
Personal favourite tracks: My Bloody Valentine, Riot Girl, The Young & The Hopeless
I'm trying a slightly different writing style for this review, as I feel my reviews used to be too long without any real justification. If you like this shorter style, let me know!
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