Album Review: Good Charlotte - Cardiology

It has been a long time since Good Charlotte where the guy-liner’d pin up boys for misunderstood teens across the world. These days the Maryland pop-punkers are committed family men and charity activists. Nonetheless, it’s never too late to revisit the glory days and with fifth album 'Cardiology' Good Charlotte get back to basics.

After the somewhat confusing ‘Introduction To Cardiology’ the album kicks it off properly with ‘Let The Music Play’, a throwback to 2002-era pop-punk that starts with a crashing drum intro and quickly turns in to an energetic, riff-led track. It’s immediately noticeable how much lead singer Joel Madden’s voice has developed over the years. There’s a much warmer, more mature tone to it and, consequently, the songs are all the better for it. The band might still be writing about being beaten by the system and fighting the man but there’s a sense that he’s singing to the kids that need to hear it rather than it being a personal therapeutic release. Impressively it doesn’t feel any less authentic for the fact.

There’s a lot of love songs and, for anyone with any knowledge of the bands’ personal lives, that’s to be expected. ‘Silver Screen Romance’ stands out the most; with it’s soaring vocals and interspersed “HEY’”s it’s real feel-good singalong material. Firmly in the same category but with very different lyrical content is the following track, lead single ‘Like It’s Her Birthday’. It has a bit more of a dance-y vibe and some excellent backing vocals. It’s a strong introduction to the album and it stands out in context as well.

Piano-led ballad ‘Harlow’s Song (Can’t Dream Without You)’ is a sweet refection of Joel’s fatherhood. It’s mature and different for what is largely a pop-punk album at heart. Is it the best song on the record? No. But it’s worthy of inclusion and it’s heavy with emotion both in the vocals and the music. ‘Interlude - The Fifth Chamber’ is a short instrumental piece that follows and seems to take the listener out of the experience for a moment, slowing the pace and giving the band back control of how it’s all received. It’s certainly quite pretty - floaty and dreamlike - but it is a little harder to determine if it’s really necessary.

As if there was any doubt by now that the band are thinking of the past, ‘1979’, a touching look at the Madden twins’ childhood, firmly cements the fact. It’s a bittersweet look back to more innocent times but it’s bouncy and sung with some affection, rather than the angry, screaming that probably would have come along with it back in the band’s early days.

‘Cardiology’ closes with the title track. It’s a slow, introspective and, in places, slightly clichéd effort but there’s a weirdly catchy quality about it. At the end of the day, this is a Good Charlotte album. It was never going to be solid from start to finish but it’s one of their most consistent efforts to date and, given that it’s been ten years since the release of their debut, the band should be applauded for trying something different even though they’ve already found their winning formula.

3/5

‘Cardiology’ by Good Charlotte is released in the USA on November 2nd through Capitol Records.

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Francesca Vaney