Album Review: Good Charlotte - 'Cardiology'

It’s quite hard to think that this record was produced by the same band that 8 years ago created some of the anthems of teen pop punk culture. This new album ‘Cardiology’ brings the band back to their pop-punk roots but is still quite far off where they stated. ‘The Young and the Hopeless’ bought us some great pop-punk songs and it does seem like that is what the band is trying to do on this album however to be honest they don’t quite do it very well. We are introduced to' Cardiology' with the echoing vocals ‘’Cardiology, its guiding you and me, directing history, new technology, cardiology a mystery’’. A short intro like this is a tricky thing to pull off, it can make or break the listener’s opinion to keep the album playing, or to press stop, To be honest this intro does the latter.

Quite surprisingly the first song ‘Let The Music Play’ is not as bad as the intro or the title suggests. This song has some of the makings of the pop-punk sound that Good Charlotte were famous for and to be honest is quite catchy, but with every slight inkling of the band returning to their pop-punk roots there is a more evident pop sound, with the strong presence of electronic sounds and cliché pop lyrics it seems like they have fallen far short of reaching the sound they once had.

The album continues on with songs such as ‘Counting The Days’, Last Night and ‘Like It’s Her Birthday’ which are all very skip able (to be honest most of the album is skip able), with lyrics such as ‘’Drinking champagne, Going insane, Falling on me, Like it's her birthday’’ and the overuse of electronics these kinds of songs fill the majority of the album, the album feels very over produced and like a lot of other pop album i have heard before.

But what is a pop album without a ballad and Good Charlottes efforts with ‘Harlow’s Song’ is once again introduced with electronic sounds but is one of the less painful songs on the album, written about lead singer Joel Maddon’s daughter you can hear that unlike previous songs on the album, this one’s lyrics actually are heartfelt and therefore have produced a fairly pleasant song.

Most of the way through the album is an ‘Interlude’ a 1:29 instrumental to let you breath before the album continues, personally I don’t find a reason for this, seems like just a filler on this 15 song long album although to be honest some might need a breather from the effects of the previous 10 songs. Overall the majority of the album does not flow very well, mixing and changing between dance orientated pop songs and rock influenced pop songs i was left a little bit confused as to what they were trying to achieve by this most recent album offering.

It is definitely evident that Good Charlotte have grown since their last offering 3 years ago, but although they have grown up, listening to them now its heard to think that they were the same band who wrote those influential pop-punk songs years ago. Although it is evident what the band is trying to do with this album, they are not the same band they were back then and neither is their music.

1. "Introduction to Cardiology" 0:47

2. "Let the Music Play" 4:12

3. "Counting the Days" 2:51

4. "Silver Screen Romance" 3:10

5. "Like It's Her Birthday" 3:30

6. "Last Night" 3:40

7. "Sex On the Radio" 3:16

8. "Alive" 3:14

9. "Standing Ovation" 3:39

10. "Harlow's Song (Can't Dream Without You) " 3:34

11. "Interlude: The Fifth Chamber" 1:29

12. "1979" 2:59

13. "There She Goes" 3:22

14. "Right Where I Belong" 3:52

15. "Cardiology"  2:56