Good Charlotte:
Chronicles of Life and Death CD

by Brittany Valenti

 Chronicles of Life and Death chronicles the life and death of Good Charlotte. Trying to reach a new younger audience, they leave their old audience by the side of the road for the trash man to pick up.

 The Chronicles of Life and Death starts out with a very Nightmare Before Christmas sound on their first track, a chorus of singing in Japanese. “Predictable”, like most Good Charlotte’s song refers to the father of lead singer Joel Madden and guitarist Benji Maddens, and it probably rocks harder than any song on the album.

 It sounds less pop than their second single “I Just Wanna Live”.  A mock on the lifestyle like they are now living, “I Just Wanna Live” pokes fun at themselves with their lyrics “Got an interview with Rolling Stone They’re saying Now your rich and now your famous. Fake ass girls all know your name.” People with long memories might recall their first mainstream hit called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

 One of the songs that should not have been on the album at all is a song called “Secrets”, What where they thinking when they decided to put a song all about hiding our dirty little secrets away in a closet and having a darker side on their album? Not something that the band should be sending out to their young fans, saying that they have dirty little secrets hidden away.  The drums over power the other instruments but the guitar cords have an amazing sound which is the only thing that makes the song.

            Though the album is not as good as their self-titled album, it is also not as bad as their second album the Young and the Hopeless. This album definitely shows a whole different side of the band. If you were a fan before and can deal with the change then pick up the album. However, if you weren’t a fan before you might not even want to bother picking up this album.