Good Charlotte have been a massive part of my life since I was 12 years old. If I had to choose a favourite band, it would be them. No doubt. They are extremely mainstream but that's not a bad thing at all. In my opinion, they've worked hard to earn their fame and from the beginning have written songs that appeal to a wide variety of people, not just really one specific age group or subculture. They've sung and played the way they wanted to.
SO with their band being more recognised by the general public more than say a band like DevilDriver, it's not really a massive surprise when Joel appears on "The Voice" or one of their songs is played during a car ad. What sort of surprised me was when I saw that the Madden twins were the current faces of KFC.
I've actually started getting tired of seeing the billboard and the tv ads. More than two people have approached me and asked me if the twins have gone broke. Just because they're part of my favourite band doesn't necessarily mean I know their personal affairs.
I'm assuming KFC snapped them up because they were available and people knew their faces. It's all advertisement trickery.
BUT (below this is a rant and you're most welcome to read it GC fan or not)
Lets assume they're not as comfortable as they once were. So maybe, just maybe instead of KFC ads, they could possibly...oh I don't know...write a good album? It has been 9 years since "The Chronicles of Life and Death" came out and is the last album I listen to all the way through. "Good Morning Revival" has maybe 2 or 3 songs I really like and I bought "Cardiology" as it is their newest album but I haven't listened to it all the way through, only one or two songs at most.
Bands grow up. That's just common knowledge. Their first album, they were angry, loners, still finding love and questioning authority and life.
Their second "The Young and The Hopeless" gave a "we have a grasp of who we are now. We're still young though and this is how it is. Glad I'm not you." message.
Their third "The Chronicles of Life and Death" protests against violence, war, animal abuse, suicides and encourages people to keep building themselves and make something of your life.
So after that, a follow up of those issues would be nice. BUT NO we get songs like "Keep your hands off my shallow, designer brand whore of a girl", "Party like it's her Birthday" as well as a song that they could have added on to "Like it's her Birthday" but decided to release it as a single, separate and equally shitty song "Last Night."
Leave the party anthems to people who are incapable of making music from the soul, whose goal isn't to be really much of an influence on anyone, who hasn't been making music for 16+ years because it's what they love to do. Expressing how much fun you've had partying is fine I guess, but the songs are just bland, boring and tasteless. I'm still here because of their past songs. Even if I don't need the help I did back then, it's still nice to listen to a new release and say "Yes, they still know what's up. They're not fucking around."
A new direction is fine. We've heard different styles all through out their albums. Just don't go backwards instead of forwards. KFC is a step back. Writing another song like "In this World (Murder)", "Hold On", "Seasons" and "Ghost of you" is a giant step forward.
