Good Charlotte - Generation Rx

Good Charlotte
Generation Rx
2018
Spotify

Oh boy. I mean you should know what you are getting into when you review a Good Charlotte record in 2018, but I didn't expect it to be quite this bad. There are times where it feels like some kind of strange time warp where you are hearing every version of music Good Charlotte has tried to make throughout the years. They have always been a band that were chasing trends very hard. Yet it always felt like they were just behind the trend. They weren't the first to break in pop punk, they weren't the first to go emo and they weren't the first to embrace EDM into their music, they were always like the fifth. Generation Rx a clear play on the idea that a whole generation of people are on prescription pills, whether true or not sounds absolutely absurd coming from Good Charlotte. How much better could these brothers' lives have gone? They broke early, were edgy enough to land major girlfriends and wives while continuing to have a big enough fan base to keeping raking in the dough. Why then are they so fucking sad on this album? These are guys in their forties still whining about childish love and heartbreak. It sounds so silly. I shouldn't minimize the "pain" someone feels, but when they sing about how hard life is and fraught with mental anguish it ends up sounding ridiculous. These are things you scream about when you are 18, not 40.

These songs make so little impact, that by the time you look up the album is nearly done. It would be great if these tracks were at least catchy, or aggressive or anything but this vanilla suburbs pop punk but they aren't. The last song "California (The Way I Say I Love You)" is perhaps the biggest offender. It seriously sounds like it could be from the year 2000, even the vocals have that 2000s fucking whine that I just cannot stomach anymore. It's hard to write about because it's hard to listen too. A lot of bands really ride out a wave of nostalgia in their later years. You see it all the time, bands pumping out the same tired songs over and over again, hoping that their fans stay around long enough. Nothing about this record feels like something that needed to be said, or even if the band cares about saying it. It's just platitudes and warmed over ideas from the past. If you can get through this thing, good on you because it was a total chore for me.

2.0 out of 10