Good Charlotte started out as a typical American no-holds-barred punk band à la Blink 182. Their first album, The Young And The Hopeless, was a huge sales success. On The Chronicles Of Life Of Death the concept doesn't seem to have been tinkered with much, although the intro of the CD is very far from punk rock; that is a baroque bombastic classical piece. Fortunately, from number two it is about
… adolescent problems again and you can sing along with all the songs. There is even room for a ballad called The Truth, in which singer Joel Madden lets his throat go completely over the top. Funny are also the wrong synthesizer lines and clapbeats in the chorus of Ghost Of You. At the end of the CD the band leans more towards emocore, which goes well for the gentlemen. Good Charlotte no longer makes pure happy punk rock, but we still can't really call it original. (JdD)more
