Good Charlotte: Ranking the "Anthems"
Every week, we try to rank our favorite bands' discographies. This week, our Co-Founder, photographer, and writer, Olivia Rozinski, ranked her favorite Good Charlotte albums. There are many curveballs, a must-read.
-Jackson
- The Young and The Hopeless
In full transparency, I feel like I had to put this somewhere on the list. But it’s full of skips. Despite being the album that most people think of when Good Charlotte comes up, this whole album might be their most skippable [of the top 5]. There’s obviously the standouts which catapulted them to the well known status they achieved like “The Anthem,” “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous,” and “Girls & Boys.” But listening to this album in its entirety, I skipped most of the other songs. This is not to say it’s not good- it’s without question good. It’s probably why they don’t need an introduction. However, in reflection, I just feel like this album left me wanting for what they could do and what they, eventually, would do.
- The Chronicles of Life and Death
Their 3rd studio album creates much more of a cohesive storyline than their sophomore, 'The Young and The Hopeless.' With songs like "I Just Wanna Live," "We Believe," and "The World is Black" I think they hit their stride with the emo/punk trends that were happening in 2004 and absolutely made some trends in doing so. While this might not be their most well known album, I think this album shows that they were still experimenting and exploring with sound while staying true to their own sound. This might have gotten a higher ranking due to the nostolgia factor for me. I remember playing the album on repeat after I got it for Christmas- and for those that remember, this came in two versions- The "Life" version and the "Death" version. I absolutely insisted on the "Death" version to attest to how edgy I was as a tiny teen.
- Good Charlotte
With their debute album still holding strong, I was pleasantly surprised after giving this album a full listen through. It still holds up and is such a solid album to this day. I didn't skip a single song in this album and fell in love with it honestly. It's no wonder they got the spotlight after this album. While this is a milder album comparatively, I still heard tones of their personalty throughout the album and it was such a well done complete album. I'm betting you haven't listened to this album in 20 or so years, but I definitely recommend giving it another listen.
- Good Morning Revival
Their most experimental album, Good Charlotte took a change of tone and threw everyone for a loop. But they did a good job of trying to stay with the trends at the time while making it their own. While not as iconic as songs from "The Young and The Hopeless," this album has some stand outs that are still killers today. Honestly, most of the songs from this album still hit hard. Colorblind even used the beginning of 'Keep Your Hands Off My Girl' to open their set. I remember this album coming out and a lot of people were confused, but after a listen or two, most were onboard and excited about the change in tone and how they were able to stay relevant and popular even when the trends were moving away from the punk sound Good Charlotte is known for.
- Generation Rx
This was a wild card. And I'm completely okay with the fact that many won't agree with me. But I purposefully didn't listen to this album since its release because I heard so many neutral reviews on it, many with a negative or disappointed undertone. However, after their 'Good Morning Revival' release, this was a much more mild album so the 'disappointment' is easily written off in my mind. It might be relevant to say that there was an album in between ‘Good Morning Revival’ and ‘Generation RX,’ it sounded similar to ‘The Chronicles of Life and Death’ to me and didn’t stand out enough to make this list. However, this album is full of nostalgia but with an updated sound. There were no skips on this whole album and it was such a joy to listen to. It felt like they were going back to their roots while taking everything they learned about playing with sound and combined the two in such a great way. I listened to this album on repeat once I finally listened to it because it was such an easy and enjoyable album to listen to in entirety. It’s on the shorter side as far as albums go, but it’s still so full of personality and their iconic sound. If, like me, you didn’t listen to this album go give it a listen.
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