Good Charlotte
Cardiology

After three years since the release of "Good Morning Revival" (2007), Good Charlotte returns with "Cardiology," an album they themselves, during the writing and recording process, touted as a return to their old and healthy roots; in short, it was meant to be a way to distance themselves from the 2007 work, which featured many dance elements, and to return to the albums from the early '00s ("Good Charlotte" and "The Young And The Hopeless").

The band has actually never had much to say. The themes proposed in any album are repeated ad nauseam ("Everything's gonna be alright," a very imaginative and creative phrase, never used by anyone (!), is almost everywhere in "Good Charlotte," for example), but although the first three works had their own dignity, with "Good Morning Revival," they really hit rock bottom. An unlistenable album, a salad-bowl of genres, from pop, to dance, to pop-punk. Indeed, the very modest commercial success that followed (it sold half a million copies worldwide) must have convinced the Madden twins (or maybe they were convinced by the record company) that the new path they had taken was rather unfruitful.

But let's get to the album in question. What comes to mind already after the first, very brief episode of "Introduction To Cardiology" is to stop wasting time listening to this product. In reality, some tracks within "Cardiology" turn out to be tolerable; "Let The Music Play," "Counting The Days," and "Silver Screen Romance" seem taken directly from the sessions of "The Young And The Hopeless" (2002), featuring the same characteristics of old tracks, pure pop-punk with melodies, however, sometimes too cloying. Also saved in the album is the ballad "Counting The Days," one of the best episodes the band has been able to offer in recent years, but what remains is laughable, to say the least.

In truth, after the release of the first single "Like It's Her Birthday" which heralded this "masterpiece," I wasn't expecting a work worthy of note and, in fact, most of the album is disheartening. The horrible "Last Night" (also chosen as a single, it takes courage!) with Mr. Madden's voice following terrible melodies, the more catchy "Sex On The Radio," a poorly executed plagiarism of Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", useless and tedious interludes like "Interlude: The Fifth Chamber" are just some examples that give the idea of a failed album, on par with its predecessor; let's add that the same instrumental loop is repeated ad nauseam in every song.

To sum it all up, "Cardiology," the title track chosen as the closing track, helps us. Revisiting the theme of the opening song, it victoriously contends for the worst track of the album. I don't think there could have been a worse way to finish the album.

This also suggests that there are very few ideas left, that the "peak" of their career is unfortunately far away, and that there is (perhaps) nothing more to expect from this little band from Maryland. (4.5/10)