It's always difficult for artists who make their mark appealing to a youthful audience to age their music, I talked about this a bit in the Taylor Swift review. Good Charlotte I think has an even tougher road than Swift. Not only was their subject matter youthful, but their whole sound has a youthful feel to it that doesn't age very well. These guys are ten years past their start and they are now married with kids and so obviously they are not the same band, they can no longer sing about being the kid that never got picked to play basketball. So what do they sing about now. Well they sing about being married, they sing about having kids, they sing about relationships falling apart, they even sing a dedication to the year they were born 1979. They do it pretty much sticking to their original sound and that causes a bit of a problem, but for the most part I would say they've done a good job. If people can give Weezer credit for aging their sound I think these guys can get credit as well.
The problem I have with this album is similar to how I feel about the latest Weezer stuff. It is overly nostalgic and doesn't focus enough on what life is like now for these guys at 31. Why did Green Day make such a splash with American Idiot, because they took that same youthful sound and exuberance of their early stuff and aimed it straight at their current life and world view. In 1980 Bruce Springsteen turned 31 he made The River. He turned his view from overly personal songs, to songs that took a harder look at life and at love.
The key here is to be able to turn your songs from being so internal to having more of a view of what's happening around you. To the people around you, to the world around you. That's probably one of the biggest changes in turning 30. Let's face it from 13-29 it's all drama and all about you. Once you hit 30 you realize that you're probably going to be here for a while so you might as well open up your eyes to what's going on around you.
OK so I got off track a bit, but this album really is all about a band turning 31 years old and trying to figure out how to still draw in their fans. Like I said I think they do a pretty good job aging their sound, now they just have to figure out how to grow their lyrics.
It's not a bad album and I could see throwing it on while washing the car on a pretty summer day or taking a drive to the beach. I have to say I don't understand the release date for this album since it has more of a summer feel.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 2 out of 5 stars for Not Bad.
Love seeing the album reviews back.
ReplyDeleteLast night, by the way, was a big night for Eleanor and me, because Brad Paisley finally won CMA Entertainer of the Year, after years of losing out to that no-talent Kenny Chesney. The only downside for Eleanor was that Female Vocalist of the Year went to Miranda Lambert instead of Taylor Swift.
I'm not going to review the new Paisley album since it's just a collection of old stuff.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. By the way, Kid Rock performed at the CMA's, and Eleanor was really annoyed because she didn't think he counts as a country star.
ReplyDeleteGwynneth Paltrow sung a song to promote her new movie (in which she plays a country singer). The movie looked terrible (and, in any event, it falls under my general rule of not watching movies that involve Gwynneth Paltrow), but she sang surprisingly well.
I like Kenny Chesney and Gwynneth Paltrow just fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be thinking about this songwriter-in-the-teens/20s-vs.-songwriter-in-the-30s/40s point, which I found very interesting in the review.