Good Morning Revival is the fourth album by the American rock band Good Charlotte, released on March 27, 2007 through Epic and Daylight Records. The band began working on new material in early 2005, however, drummer Chris Wilson soon left the band and was replaced by Dean Butterworth. The group took a break to focus on their personal lives before reconvening in early 2006, and eventually reconnecting with producer Don Gilmore. He was dismissive of the new material that the band showed him, and on his recommendation Benji and Joel Madden left Los Angeles, California and settled in Vancouver, Canada. After writing a number of new songs there, the brothers felt they were heading in the right direction. Meeting up every two weeks, the band members showed off the songs they were working on; Gilmore was again dismissive, challenging them to write material that was different. Another batch of songs was written before recording began in July 2006 and concluded in September.
Featuring heavy use of keyboards, played by guitarist Billy Martin, most of the material is credited to the Madden brothers and Gilmore. Overall comparisons were made to the Killers and A Flock of Seagulls, with individual aspects of songs resembling works by the Rapture, t.A.T.u. and Underworld, among others. Early 2007 saw the debut of music videos, and single releases, for "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" and "The River" in January and February. "Dance Floor Anthem" was released as a single in June, and was followed by a tour supporting Justin Timberlake. The band then embarked on an Australian tour and released "Misery" as a single in December. Another single, "Where Would We Be Now", was released in May 2008 and preceded the band's co-headlining US tour with Boys Like Girls that summer.
Good Morning Revival received a mixed reception from critics, some of whom praised the band's hooks and choruses. It sold 66,000 copies in its first week, debuting at number seven on the Billboard 200 in the process. As of July 2010, sales stood at 314,000 copies sold. Outside the US, the album reached the top 10 in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as the top 30 in the UK, Finland, Sweden, Italy and France. Within these territories, the album was certified platinum in Australia, and gold in Canada and New Zealand, and silver in the UK. "The River" and "Dance Floor Anthem" were successful on the US radio charts, and both reached the top 40 on the Hot 100. "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" charted within the top 10 in Australia and Finland and reached the top 40 across various European countries. "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" was certified gold in Australia, while "Dance Floor Anthem" was certified platinum in Australia and the US.
Background In March 2005, the band went on a UK tour during which they worked on new material on their tour bus. Vocalist Joel Madden expressed an interest in moving beyond the three-chord song structures used in the songs on The Chronicles of Life and Death. Guitarist Billy Martin had kept this in mind while writing the majority of the material. At this point, Madden reckoned they had anywhere from a quarter to half an album's worth of songs. In May, drummer Chris Wilson left the group and was replaced by Dean Butterworth. The band had met him through Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann. In August, the band revealed they would be recording later in the year with producer Eric Valentine. Madden said he had been revisiting the music of acts he used to enjoy, such as Oasis, the Police and the Clash. He also mentioned that keyboards, played by Martin, would feature heavily on the new songs.
At this point, they had written 12 songs, and planned to go into pre-production in November and record in December. Instead, they took a break to focus on their personal lives. Martin worked on painting while the Madden brothers spent time producing other acts and DJing. They eventually got the urge to work again and reconvened in February 2006. The band reconnected with Don Gilmore, who produced their first album, and showed him the 50 songs they had written. Gilmore was dismissive of all the material except for "Keep Your Hands off My Girl".
Dave Massey, executive vice president of A&R at Sony Music Labels Group, and Gilmore proposed that they reinvent themselves, a view the Madden brothers shared. Massey said: "[They] wrote some very promising early songs, but both Don and myself really wanted to push the envelop as to what could be achieved".Graff 2007, p. 40 Gilmore suggested that the Madden brothers needed to escape from the Los Angeles scene to focus on the songs, and recommended they go to Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver's picturesque environment was an inspiration, and over the course of seven weeks they wrote a new batch of songs. The group were anxious and scared about impressing Gilmore; after they had written "Victims of Love", Joel Madden said they "felt like 'OK, now we're definitely on to something new and different'". Collectively, they spent two months in Canada before returning home.
Recording Every two weeks, the band would get together and play each other the songs they had written. They made demos of all the songs they liked, eventually recording around 40 from the Madden brothers, 12 from Martin and five from bassist Paul Thomas. They were sent in batches of ten to Gilmore, who would often respond saying he only liked one of the tracks. Gilmore challenged the band to write new material that was different. The group had demoed another 30 songs before they began recording their final choices in July. The band had met previously with a number of producers, but eventually went with Gilmore because of his helpful comments on the demos.
Sessions took place at Armoury Studios and The Warehouse in Vancouver, and at NRG Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. Recording was handled by Mark Kiczula with assistant engineer Fox Phelps. Martin used his Paul Reed Smith guitar for three-quarters of the recording; for the rest of the album he used a John 5 Telecaster. The guitars were played through Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers heads connected to Marshall speaker cabinets. He used an Eventide H3000 Harmonizer effects pedal on nearly all the songs. Benji Madden played an Ernie Ball bass running through JCM heads connected to Marshall cabinets.
The band were talking to Avenged Sevenfold during the MTV Video Music Awards and invited them to the studio to hear the album. Joel Madden asked if they wanted to appear on a song and picked "The River". M. Shadows lent his vocals, and Synyster Gates contributed a guitar solo to the track. Bobbie Page, Terry Wood, Maxine Waters and Carmen Carter sing backing vocals on "All Black". The Incognito Horns play on "Broken Hearts Parade". BC Smith and Bart Hendrickson did the programming. Sessions concluded on September 14, and the recordings were sent for mixing three days later. They were mixed by Andy Wallace at Soundtrack Studios in New York City. John O'Mahony served as Pro Tools engineer with assistance from Mike Scielzi. Ted Jensen mastered the recordings at Sterling Sound in New York City.
Composition
Overview According to Joel Madden, the group wanted to move away from the dark overtones of their past work as they found their contemporaries' music was becoming "really dramatic". They decided to move into dance-orientated territory, incorporating hip-hop and dance elements into their pop-punk sound, and borrowed guitar effects from U2 guitarist The Edge. The album's sound has been classed as dance-punk, dance-rock and pop rock, with elements of new wave, pop-punk and rock. It drew comparisons to the Killers, the Bravery and A Flock of Seagulls. The album features a heavy use of keyboards compared to The Chronicles of Life and Death. According to Martin, they toyed with keyboards a bit on Chronicles, which everyone enjoyed. As a result, when writing for the new album, Martin would work on an idea with a keyboard instead of his guitar.
The Madden brothers had used their downtime from the band to DJ various events. Benji Madden said this was influential to the dance-y nature of the album, since the brothers were aware of how people were moving to the music. Joel Madden said Butterworth was important to the making of the album because he was from a "different school" of drumming. Martin said that Benji Madden came up with the name for the record, which he regarded as a "fresh kind of starting over". All the songs on the album are credited to Benji and Joel Madden and Don Gilmore, except for "Keep Your Hands off My Girl", credited to the Madden brothers, and "Where Would We Be Now", credited to Martin and the Madden brothers. The group retained three tracks from the initial pile of demos before involving Gilmore.
Songs
"Good Morning Revival" opens the album and acts as a sound collage before transitioning into "Misery". Gilmore's production work on the first two Linkin Park records is evident in the guitar licks on this track, which recalled their Meteora album. Discussing the track, Madden said they lived in a "world full of distraction, and no one is supposed to be sad or feel anything but great and happy and do whatever it takes to be happy". "The River" features M. Shadows and Synyster Gates, members of Avenged Sevenfold, marking the first time the band had collaborated with another artist. The track is reminiscent of Alkaline Trio and makes numerous references to the Bible. It talks about people who get involved in the lifestyle of Los Angeles and lose their identity as a result. Electro-disco track "Dance Floor Anthem" is reminiscent of the Rapture; Madden said it is a break-up song that encourages someone to "[g]et out there and meet somebody, have a good time. ... Forget about it. Don't buy into the drama".
The Gorillaz-lite, pseudo-rapping "Keep Your Hands off My Girl" was inspired by DJ Junior Sanchez, a friend of Madden's who taught him about DJ and dance culture. Madden had intended for Sanchez to release the song, however, it was included on the album after people said positive things about it. It makes reference to clothing companies and artists such as Louis Vuitton, ASG, YSL and the Game. The song's distorted vocal track echoes the one used on Underworld's "Born Slippy". Dance-funk tune "Victims of Love" cribs heavily from the t.A.T.u. track "All the Things She Said", and employs a similar robotic vocal effect used by Cher on "Believe". Discussing "Where Would We Be Now", "Break Apart Her Heart" and "Something Else", Joel Madden said that love was a huge "part of me and I've accepted that and it's in my music. And I'm not afraid to just show it".
The piano in "Where Would We Be Now" was compared to that heard on Coldplay's "Clocks", though Martin said he was influenced by Muse. Martin moved into a new residence and found there was room for a piano. He subsequently got one and decided to write a song, resulting in "Where Would We Be Now". "All Black" opens with the sound of a pipe organ before the rest of the band joins in, toying with goth rock in the process. Country-leaning "Beautiful Place" was written by Benji Madden while he was in Mexico during hurricane season. When Butterworth laid down a drum track for it, the drums became part of the hook. "Something Else" and "Broken Hearts Parade" both sound closer to that of the group's older material. "Something Else" recalls Fountains of Wayne with its call-and-response vocals and the underlying Moog synthesizer. "Broken Hearts Parade" incorporates a horn section, which Martin was stubborn about including. "March On" is a crooning ballad, which Madden said was partially inspired by the Cardigans' "Lovefool".
Release