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JennYGood Charlotte - Greatest Remixes Album Review
January 12th 2009 05:37
Genre: Dance rock, synthpop, hip hop
Length: 55:37
Label: Epic, Daylight
After releasing four successful albums, pop-punk band Good Charlotte decided to release a greatest hits compilation. However, instead of putting all their hits together in one neat – but familiar – little package, they opted for remixes of their singles by various artists in the music biz. Perhaps inspired by Linkin Park's 2002 Reanimation, the album is heavy in hip hop material but also techno/electro and reggae.
The Jamaican reggae sound shows up in three songs – Los Angeles Worldwide, Broken Hearts Parade, and Predictable. Los Angeles Worldwide is the first of three previously unreleased songs on the album. Its pop sound is infused with a reggae-like bassline that can be heard around the first verse and chorus parts of the song. The chorus is hip hop-influenced as Joel sings:
Everything's alright
From the top to the bottom, from the bottom to the top
From the start to the finish
No, we just can't stop
Everything's alright
From the city to the hills
And the streets to the beaches
It feels good to pay the bills
And buy a new pair of sneakers
It's not exactly hardcore rap material, but it gets the job done on MTV if you know what I mean.
Broken Hearts Parade is from their fourth album Good Morning Revival. The version found on this album was remixed by Marshall Arts and features Tabi Bonney and Philieano. This time the Jamaican sound is a lot more prominent in the guitar and bassline. The voice track is virtually unchanged. The result is a really bad remix where Joel's singing doesn't fit at all with instrumental. There's some rapping towards the end, and both rappers' flow match the beat so well that you have to wonder why they didn't just put a completely new rap track instead of keeping the same lyrics. Predictable (from their third album The Chronicles Of Life And Death) has the same problem as Broken Hearts Parade. Remixed by Stress the Whiteboy and featuring Razhii Hi-Power, the song is a mess but after a second listen, it's actually better than Broken Hearts Parade – the remix - if you can believe that. Once again, the voice track is the same and doesn't fit with the instrumental.
The second 'new' song of this compilation is Anxiety which feels like a leftover from the Good Morning Revival album. Imagine the same musical structure as Good Morning Revival's lead single The River and you've got Anxiety.
Fight Song featuring rapper The Game is the third 'new' song on Greatest Remixes. The credits list Jay E as the remixer, so I don't know if there's another version of this track. The Game goes well with the beat. From the lyrics, it sounds like a political song, but it's not as impressive as other artists' work. The chorus is the weakest part of the song. Benji (or Joel) sounds like he's trying to emulate Linkin Park's Chester Bennington but fails miserably. Take out the chorus (or re-work it) and you've got a good song.
The hip hop theme keeps going with Keep Your Hands Off My Girl (from Good Morning Revival) featuring Bubba Sparxxx and Jung Tru, and remixed by Dead Executives. One can easily guess that this is commercial rap, nothing more. It's decent – if you're interested in that kind of music. Joel should leave rapping to the professionals. The original is way better in my opinion. Although it was a weak attempt at a Beastie Boys imitation, it's better than this one.
Another rapper makes an appearance on this record – Hollywood Holt features on The Anthem (from Good Charlotte's second album The Young And The Hopeless) remixed by Million $ Mano. The song has a nice techno beat and this time the original voice track doesn't appear at all except for the lines “This is the anthem” and “Throw all your hands up” which are incorporated into the beat. Hollywood Holt spits a decent verse but like Keep Your Hands Of My Girl, it's only commercial rap.
I Just Wanna Live (from The Chronicles Of Life And Death) was remixed by Teddy Reilly. Here again the voice track is kept intact and doesn't match a slowed-down techno beat with a huge kick. The same problem surfaces in All Black (from Good Morning Revival) which features Mat DeVine and was remixed by The White Affair. Not only that, but the instrumental was also awful.
Little Things (from their debut album Good Charlotte) was remixed by Patrick Stump and is a complete failure. First of all, the chipmunk voice is really really annoying. Secondly, the beat is nothing special. You have to wonder if they actually listened to the stuff before releasing it.
A cover of Dance Floor Anthem (from Good Morning Revival) by Metro Station makes up the tenth track of this album. With another singer on the mic, the voice track actually meshes in well with the instrumental. This is one of the few decent songs on this record, and even then, it's only decent because the others are so bad.
The remix of Girls & Boys (from The Young And The Hopeless) by Ed Banger Allstars has a great instrumental. Unfortunately, the voice track is the same as the original with a couple of delays here and there. It's a decent track, I really love the instrumental on that one, a poor man's version of Nine Inch Nails.
In the introduction, I wrote that Good Charlotte might have been influenced by Linkin Park in the decision to release remixes of their hits. Well, Linkin Park's own Joseph Hahn makes an appearance with the remix of The Young & The Hopeless (from the album of the same name). His signature sound is unmistakable – drum machine, ambient and synthesizer sounds, turntable scratching, and the Madden brothers' singing going through a voice filter all make this track one of the best, if not the best, remix found on this album.
Remixed by The Academy Is..., Hold On (from The Young & The Hopeless) is one of the few tracks where the original voice track goes well with the instrumental which is in the domain of electronica. The only downside to it is that the new instrumental takes away the seriousness of the song's lyrics which deal with suicide.
Finally, the album concludes with Where Would We Be Now remixed by Troublemaker. The original track found on Good Morning Revival was very similar to Coldplay's Clocks instrumental-wise (especially the drum pattern) and the remix is another electronica track. Nothing impressive.
Apart from two or three tracks, this album is pure garbage. Fans will cry that they tried something different, and it doesn't matter anyway because Good Charlotte is currently working on their fifth record, but you have to wonder who approved for this... thing to be sold at music stores around the world. It will probably appeal to the pre-teen and thirteen/fourteen-year-old crowd, but other than that avoid this one at all costs. I give it a 2.25 out of 5. 2.5 would be the average mark but I feel that it's lower than that. The 0.25 comes from the fact that one or two tracks got better after a couple of listens.
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Comment by Damy
Comment by Ann 2
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I try my best not to be biased either way, but in that case there really wasn't any good tracks on this album. Decent? Yes. Good? Not really. This is pop rap (which isn't even close to the best kind of hip-hop there is) and not even good pop rap. So, yeah my final score still stands.
For the record, I listen to every album two or three times before posting its review just so I can be sure. Sometimes it makes me appreciate a record better (I wasn't too impressed with Coldplay's latest at first listen), sometimes it doesn't (as is the case here).
Thanks for stopping by though.
Comment by Kay-Ya
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