Review Summary: The Maddens and their crew's debut is actually... pretty decent.
Ah, Good Charlotte. A band that is loved by some and hated by many. Such criticism come from the fact that ever since Good Morning Revival they started abandoning musical integrity, in the favor of more cliched lyrics, and more generic songwriting, so it's kinda unthinkable that back in the year 2000, where pop punk was still at its peak, Good Charlotte actually would actually come out with something good. Is it great? Nope. But decent? Most certainly.
In this album, the Madden brothers and their band actually prove that they still could come up with some catchy ideals for their music, with the self-titled opening with the song "Little Things", which is a strong opener, although Joel's constant "yeahs" and "uh-huhs", along with "you know what I'm sayings" can get to the nerves of some listeners. Overall, the song is pretty cool, even for a devout Good Charlotte hater as myself. Other highlight is "Festival Song", which has a pretty awesome vocal performance from Joel Madden, along with some actually cool lyrics and musicianship. Speaking of that, Aaron Escolopio's drumming in this album (his only release with him, as he made his departure in 2002) is one of the highlights in the album, and is probably one of the band's only talented members at the time; however after some cool stuff, the album starts to get tiring.
While the album is actually not band for the Charlotte standards, towards the sixth song, it will actually start to get really generic for people who like albums that are prone to keep the listener interested through the whole thing; and while "The Motivation Proclamation" is one of the biggest points for the band lyrically, then we have songs that you probably heard another pop punk band at time doing millions of times. And that's the problem of the album; inconsistency.
Overall, even the biggest of haters of Good Charlotte would be open minded enough to admit that this album is actually pretty good, however it is immensely uncreative by the middle of the album's go, and sadly, things would only get worse when they came up with The Chronicles Of Life and Death.
Pros:
- Aaron Escolopio's drumming is really nice if compared to later albums
- The songs "Little Things", "Festival Song" and "The Motivation Proclamation"
- Some nice lyrics here and there
- Benji Madden actually sounds good on guitars here
Cons:
- Some cliche themes
- Inconsistency
- Lack of creativity on most of the album
- Certain vocal performances, most notably the rap-ish shouts on "Little Things"
