Artist: Good Charlotte
Label: Capitol Records
Release: 2010
Length: 46:52
Rating: 2.5/5
Landing in the player is the fifth album from “pop punk” (!) quintet Good Charlotte. Does it tackle the basic questions that come up with every release? Have the boys grown up? Where did “Lifestyle of the rich and famous” disappear to?
Good Charlotte haven’t fallen for the “Radiohead evolution” or tried to leave pop behind and make a philosophical leap toward (possible) musical enlightenment. Nope! The guys are still stuck in the same old groove as before. Good Charlotte stay Good Charlotte, and the new album “Cardiology” makes no secret of it either. Love them or hate them, the dudes are often a lot more credible than their rivals and peers like Simple Plan, Papa Roach, etc…
The album was announced back in December 2008 for release the following year, 2009, but there were obviously some complications. The guys definitely went for a different approach. You could say they’re a touch more mature, but the same can’t be said for their lyrics. The former rebels have turned into today’s “emo crybabies”. As Benji Madden put it, all the songs stem from the album’s title – Cardiology. It all ties back to the heart. Which means: emotions (mostly), illness and “spirituality” (that one’s pretty threadbare). Even if you can chew your way through the lyrics,it’s a fact, when you compare their earlier work with the new material, that the vocals have gotten even whinier. The music itself works fine. It’s a sort of mash-up of slowed-down punk rock tempos and cinematic pop. Like Paris Hilton wrote the music herself. And since the use of “auto-tune” is hugely popular these days, GC are no exception at all.
“Cardiology” turns out just as expected. It’s a bunch of repetitive songs built on the same tried-and-tested formula. Still, the melodies work convincingly enough that, if you’ve got the iron will to stick with the new material, you can forget about the “shallowness” and turn into a backing vocalist for the Madden brothers whenever the new Good Charlotte album spins in your CD player. But that’s more the exception than the rule. Even though the guitars are properly distorted and the drums more or less match them in power, we can’t award the album the title of rock. Even counting “metal” names like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.
GC try to broaden their horizons on a couple of tracks, but in the end it all just fades into an eclipse. A good explanation for this lukewarmness is the track ”Like It’s Her Birthday”, which kicks off very “Franz Ferdinand-esque” on the guitars, but once the vocals come in, it feels like Enrique Iglesias is guesting on the album.
To justify calling themselves a “rock band”, GC haven’t exactly gone out of their way on the new album. Just how double-edged the notion of rock can be, and how it can be cleverly exploited for the sake of manipulation, is shown by comparing the expressive differences between CG’s new original song titled 1979 and the idiom of the Smashing Pumpkins song of the same name.
The last track on the album is also the title track and yet another failed attempt by GC to sound powerful, but as the song goes on it just can’t cash in on its initial potential or hold on to the interest of the intro. Whatever. Despite all the remarks about their sheer mediocrity and questionable credibility when it comes to the tangible essence of the band’s expressive character, Good Charlote still manage, with the new album too, to keep up a surprisingly successful and effective use of the formula that brings them sales profits. The “brats”, as we might call their base of supporters, stay devoted and keep backing them. Good Charolote, meanwhile, have stopped evolving, full stop. “Cardiology” has about as much creative inspiration and artistic expression as a frog has feathers on its head.
All of you who love the popular music MTV is full of these days, with dashes of punk rock and “emo” whimpering in the verses, know that you can check out “Cardiology” without any reservations. After all, the music is very rhythmic and just right for a middle school dance. Dancing is possible for all styles. From “slow” to “party style” and plain old jumping around. Enjoy the cardiology that Jehovah himself had in store for us.
Lineup
Joel Madden – vocals
Benji Madden – vocals and guitar
Billy Martin – guitar and keyboards
Dean Butterworth – drums
Paul Thomas – bass
Bart Hendrickson – keyboards and programming
BC Smith – keyboards and programming
Production
Don Gilmore
Tracklist
1. Introduction to Cardiology
2. Let the Music Play
3. Counting the Days
4. Silver Screen Romance
5. Like It’s Her Birthday
6. Last Night
7. Sex On the Radio
8. Alive
9. Standing Ovation
10. Harlow’s Song (Can’t Dream Without You)
11. Interlude: The Fifth Chamber
12. 1979
13. There She Goes
14. Right Where I Belong
15. Cardiology
