Good Charlotte "The Chronicles of Life and Death" (Epic Records) Sounds Like: new Blink 182 with a helping of new N.E.R.D. with keyboards.
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Good Charlotte's self-titled debut showed them as dreamers who wanted to make a living doing what they loved: play music. On their second release, "The Young And The Hopeless" the band grew up some and made their mark on mainstream music by addressing a teenage diary's worth of issues partnered with great, catchy pop-punk. In Good Charlotte's latest offering, "The Chronicles of Life and Death," the band has become much more serious and introspective.
Good Charlotte has always described some of their problems but they hadn't really addressed them until now. "Predictable" touches on the band's most consistent subject: the desertion Papa Madden (Benji and Joel's father) who left them as children. On their previous songs (like "Little Things") the band had shown remorse and anger about the situation. But now the band members have looked inward and described what the desertion did to them, and the record finally seem to bring some closure. Another new subject for the band is mortality. On the title track the band observes the similarities between life and death.
Artistically, Good Charlotte has grown in leaps and bounds on "The Chronicles of Life and Death." The band experiments with some new styles of music. Most noticeably, the band has effectively added piano or keyboards to many of the new songs. This is especially apparent and successful on songs like "Ghost of You" and "The World is Black."
Not quite as successfully, the band tries a Pharell-esque rap song, "I Just Wanna Live," that discusses the band's reaction to their fame and all the gossip that comes with it. The band has also lost some of its catchy pop quality that shot them into notoriety. This isn't necessarily a negative thing but might affect their exposure somewhat.
The band has also increased their usage of religious references. This doesn't come off as heavy-handed, annoying or preachy but instead shows a comfort and confidence with who Good Charlotte is.
The release of "The Chronicles of Life and Death" has two different versions, life and death, featuring two different covers and a different bonus track for each version. "Falling Away," the life version's bonus track, is a good, catchy song that is more reminiscent of the band's older pop-punky material. "Meet My Maker," death's bonus track, is a more introspective song dealing with accepting death.
Overall "The Chronicles of Life and Death" is a bold step in the right direction for Good Charlotte. Many bands coming off of a hugely successful record might try to make a copy-cat record a recreation of what made them a success, but Good Charlotte challenged themselves as musicians and writers to create their most remarkable record yet.
