Good Charlotte: nurturing teenage spirits

There used to be a commercial harmony between USA and the UK: an artist from either continent could reasonably expect to be recognized, with a potential of becoming successful on the other market. But, the gap between the two warring countries’ cultures is widening: for every Good Charlotte the Britons offer softer options, such as The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight or the mindless nostalgia that is The Darkness. [These rock historians have a slight problem with its archaeological expertise being - The Spinal Tap!]

The Americans appear to have had dominated the rock scene for… over a decade, ever since Nirvana got us hooked on that ‘Smell’. It demonstrates that European pre- and teenagers do not like only boy- and girl-outfits, or bland pop-pretenders of the Will Young’s ‘star’-quality but something more rocking, energetic, adrenaline-rushing, due to rattle parents’ cage by being “dangerous racket”!

Someone like Good Charlotte: unfazed by the mega-sales of the previous disk, the band simply keeps on rocking. In a more mature manner, deeper, meaner, broader rocking… So, a couple of years down the road from ‘The Young and The Hopeless’ cemented them as a platinum-disc act, the third album ‘The Chronicles of Life and Death’ rocks into the laser’s proximity.

Simply looking at the title - it is a huge subject and for someone as young as the Madden twins but then - Robbie Williams has already had three memoirs written instead to have read a single book! - and we all have opinions about… well, pretty much everything. ‘The Chronicles’ starts with a Japanese-like choir [is Benji’s girlfriend inspiration behind it?] of ‘Once Upon A Time: The Battle Of Life and Death’ that grows, via a string arrangement, into an intro of Wagnerian proportions; the pop-punky service is soon restored, with the title track.

‘Walk Away’ continues energetically, infectiously, firing riffs and generally rushing at the pace mustangs do. Strings come in to slow tempo down on ‘I Just Wanna Live’ but true ballads are in a fairly short supply with piano-driven ‘The Truth’ being the only proper one although mellower elements are incorporated in ‘We Believe’ and ‘In This World (Murder)’. Earlier on the running order gets it really complex and dynamic on ‘Predictable’, which further demonstrates that the band has expended its vocabulary beyond genre’s perimeters.

Good Charlotte end the disc with a bonus track [listed on the cover] - ‘Falling Away’ - on a high note. ‘The Chronicles’ don’t bring many revelations [of course it depends on individual life experiences] but it certainly rattles some. This band is off and running, again! These pop-punks rule alright.

8/10