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by art mitchell (Art) / john rigormortis (JohnERigormortis) - Oct 15, 2002
Good Charlotte - Young and the Hopeless Review #1 - Art Mitchell The newest album from Good Charlotte will not disappoint those who are familiar with their work. The CD has a different start to it, much different from their self-titled first album. The first song is an instrumental showing a little bit of their metal prowess. The reason why it is much different from the first album, is because from the first, their song "Little Things" kicked off the CD, became their most popular song, and the styles of "Little Things" and "The Anthem" are very similar. Most of the tracks on this CD are very depressing and even have a sort of social/political commentary. For instance the song, "Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous" one of the lyrics, "Lifestyles of the rich and the famous, they’re always complaining, they’re always complaining, if money is such a problem, well they got mansions, think we should rob them?" The song is basically a 3-minute gripe about rich people can get away with stuff, because they have the money to get by it. The track "The Story of My Old Man" is another depressing track, which alternates from a peppy beat to quieter tone. It’s a sad story basically about his dad’s life wasn’t so great, much like his father’s father, and he doesn’t want to end up like that. Possibly the most depressing song on the CD would be "The Young and Hopeless", in which the lyric that sticks out in my mind, "I swear the happiest day in my life, is the day that I died". That lyric pretty much sums up the sentiment on the latter half of the CD. It’s not too over-depressing that its overkill, but at some points, the gloomy lyrics seem formulaic and artificial. Overall, in this listener’s opinion, it is a good CD and it is worth the price. Review #2 - John E. Rigormortis Ah the wickedness of Mother Nature…. She gives us eyes to see, and beautiful landscapes. She gives us noses to smell, and dozens of flowers. She gives us palettes to taste, and decadent dishes to test. She gives us sense to feel, and textures of a soft cat pet. She gives us ears to hear, and Good Charlotte to ruin it from there on out. On their second exercise in uninventive pop-punk drivel for Sony Good Charlotte exercise their right to free speech like George W. Bush, that is, nothing intelligent to say and no one wants to hear it. Further destroying the genre of pop-punk Good Charlotte release “The Young and the Hopeless” to much praise, be it only from their parents. When a band has the combined talent equal to that of an industrial Foreigner cover-band made up of people who were kicked out of Men Without Hats because they couldn’t cut it, you know you’re in trouble. Good Charlotte make a valid attempt to do something touching, unfortunately what they come off touching is something that is illegal in 48 states. Tracks such as ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ and ‘Wondering’ remind us why Blink 182 sells more CDs than this band, not because of talent (good god no!) but because they did this drivel first and copyrighted the act of releasing the same album with different stupid lyrics each time. Good Charlotte masquerade as punk with pop, unfortunately all the punk they have is in their image, this is a straight up pop album. Rather than disillusion people further (like Britney thinking people are listening to her and George W. thinking he’s really controlling the nation) be honest; Good Charlotte is pop. While going pop won’t help them from sounding like a bunch of old women talking about the good old days and how nothing is the same, it can’t be worse. When you’re pop, no one expects anything from you. |