Good Charlotte - Good Morning Revival

There are two things Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden would like you to know. One, that he lives in LA. Two, that he’s not long split up from a long-term love. Of course, we already know these things - firstly because he’s always spotted around various Hollywood haunts, and secondly he’s now shacked up with Nicole ‘Simple Life’ Richie after splitting with girlfriend of two-and-a-half years, Disney queen Hilary Duff.

OK, let’s be a little more honest. Madden really wants you to know these things. For while, in a world where Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance have better tattoos and more finely-tuned make up skills, his band aren’t concerned with improving upon the really-rather-catchy ‘I Just Wanna Live’ and upping the emo-pop stakes a little higher, oh no. They’re just keen you understand a) where they live, and b) that their collective heart is a little tender.

Second number ‘The River’ is a track about their adopted home, and rather predictably, reflects on how depressing/confusing/etc Los Angeles can be to outsiders. ‘Dance Floor Anthem’, while sounding like The Killers if they’d overdosed on 90s nu-metal instead of Duran Duran and Bruce Springsteen, bangs on about ‘not wanting to be in love’, and this in turn is followed by single ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Girl’. Get the picture?

They aren’t even preaching their messages in a tolerable way, either. The name of the game appears to be something akin to writing dreadful songs, and attempting to mask this with over-use of numerous electronic gizmos. Imagine taking the lyrical themes of the breakthrough track ‘Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous’ (a track which surely even the band must now see the irony of), removing any sense of melody, and replacing the whole lot with a three-year-old pushing random buttons on an old Casio. You might just be half way there. In short, ‘Good Morning Revival’ is a dire album.