Review Summary: After the 2007 misstep, the synth pop punk effort “Good Morning Revival”, they are obviously trying to gain their fan base back by returning to their pop punk roots. On “Cardiology”, there's something for everyone but it's irrelevant.
After the 2007 misstep, the synth pop punk effort “Good Morning Revival”, they are obviously trying to gain their fan base back by returning to their pop punk roots. On “Cardiology”, which in the end is a combination of their early sound with some dance beats, they rely mostly on catchy, simple songs rather than any substance.
This means that all the songs are 3 minute radio friendly tunes with catchy choruses and polished guitars. Should work fine on the paper, but when you listen you find a band in a midlife crisis that’s desperately trying to get back on the map.
The music sounds bland with safe, polished guitars and they keep it like that throughout the radio with no risks. The only decent tracks are “Alive”, with a catchy chorus and nice instrumental, “Let The Music Play” with its arena size sound and “Counting The Days” sometimes (mostly because of the chorus only).
The rest of the album sounds pretty much the same. There are some ballads like “Cardiology”, where Joel gets more scientific about all this heart-related stuff and “Harlow’s Song” which starts nice with the vocals but it ends up like all the other numbers on the album. Also, we can find some “Good Morning Revival” revivals like “Sex On The Radio”, “Counting The Days” and the dumb first single “Like It’s Her Birthday”(in case you liked that album to at least buy this one too), but none of them are as clever or enjoyable as “Dance Floor Anthem”.
You can’t judge the album by the lyrics either… They are cheesy, you can find the same clichés that they’ve sung about for a decade now. Only this time the band members are in their 30’s and sound desperate and lame really. They don’t get past the Jonas Brothers level of simplicity and lament, and this is obvious especially on tracks like “Silver Screen Romance” and “Sex On The Radio” (they only get more explicit than the Bros., not better) and “1979”.
They also feel the need to recycle the same lyrics found on “Alive” – “I never felt so alive like I feel right now in this moment” for the songs: “Standing Ovation” (which is a useless second hand Oasis tune) – “ We’re alive now[…]the most of every second we’re alive, oh” and “1979” (this one it’s tricky, you don’t find the same lyrics but the same theme).
They described this record as "a more mature version of our self titled album... really simple production, just all about the songs and the lyrics.” It’s not about the lyrics at all, they are back in square one, only with some punctuated synths and dance beats over it. It’s been a decade now, even their so-called peers, Blink 182, matured in time for their self titled record back in 2003, but Good Charlotte went back to zero. Now, “Good Morning Revival” does not seem that bad anymore.
PS: The cover is utterly awful behind only Creed’s “Weathered” .
