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CD Review: Good Charlotte, "The Chronicles of Life and Death" (Island)
"As much growth as there was from our first record to our second record," Good Charlotte 's Joel Madden says in a statement, "there's so much more on this one. We've become comfortable in our own skin. We have nothing to prove."
True to the words, Maryland's Good Charlotte pushes several envelopes with "The Chronicles of Life and Death."
"I Just Wanna Live" is shockingly hip-hop, while the plaintive "We Believe" smacks of circa-'90s U2. The chunky acoustic guitar and bass twang of "The World is Black" feels so conspicuously '80s (in a Violent Femmes/Cure kind of way) that you may want to break out your Rubik's Cubes. The Beatle-esque ballad "The Truth" sports an appropriately vintage-sounding drum set (Ringo anyone?). For the Good Charlotte faithful, trademark punk-rock anthems abound, like "Mountain" and "Walk Away (Maybe)."
For the most part, the lyrics still revolve around inner turmoil and angst, but musically, the band sounds like it's growing happily.
