It’s that old problem for rock stars that have fought their way up from the gutter, step by grimy step, singing all the way about how goddamn hard their life is and what they would only do if things weren’t so tough. And then one day they are big famous successes with a huge fridge full of beer and cream cakes and a garage stuffed to the rafters with cash.

Good Charlotte’s fourth album sees them reunited with Don Gilmore, producer of their debut album way back in 2000. They are still blasting out the same style of hard-edged grunge-rock, but never happy standing still, they are trying a few new things along the way. ‘Misery’, the opening track, is a good anthemic reminder that they can write a good tune and play it with depth and slurping subtlety (I just accidentally mis-spellchecked surprising and got slurping, but I think I like it better!). The album’s first single, ‘Keep Your Hands off My Girl’, takes a unusual turn into dance floor inspired beats, but maybe isn’t one of the stronger tracks on the album.

But there’s no question they are having to dig a little deeper to find things to write about, now that the success they have achieved suggests that maybe they world isn’t out to get them and maybe they are not so young and hopeless after all. ‘Something Else’ is a good love song, in the vein of ‘Sk8ter Boi’ or the Billy Joel classic ‘Uptown Girl’; bad boy meets posh girl but it turns out OK. ‘All Back’ slides into clichéd Goth territory of teenage angst, but it doesn’t seem quite so convincing from a multi million selling group. Nevertheless, this is a real step forward for Good Charlotte; the songs make you shout along and they still play like they mean it.
(4/5)