Good Charlotte - Hold On
** (out of four)
God, there's always that moment when every novelty band with their novelty power-pop hits tries to go serious. Add to that list Good Charlotte, who has entered both the lexicons of Top 40 radio and the background music of countless VH1 and E! Network fashion/sex scandals/celebrity gossip specials with their song "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
The pop-punk boys have decided they have to slow things down to adult album-rock midtempo turf and put together a statement song about suicide. And, at the risk of, ahem, killing the suspense, I will go ahead and reveal that Good Charlotte is categorically against suicide. Unlike that bat-head eater Ozzy Osbourne. So parents, you can breathe easier.
The video is four minutes of very serious-looking band members - even their turquoise eye shadow and wallet chains appear to be in mourning - lip- and play-synching to the song from inside a hollowed-out, roofless building. That's all filmed through the blue filter. Then, filmed with the green filter, we get the Soul Asylum "Runaway Train" parade of cameo shots of actual suicide-attempt survivors and people who have lost sons, fathers, sisters and girlfriends to self-termination.
I'm a cynical fuck, that's patently obvious, but even I have to wear the kid gloves when dealing with a topic like suicide. Abortion, cancer, mental retardation - I'll gladly poke merciless fun at those three. Suicide, however, is a completely different demon. One that hits particularly close to home for me because I had a second cousin fatally slit his wrists midway through a 2003 Good Charlotte concert because he "just wanted to end the pain."
NOTE: This review written March 8, 2005.
God, there's always that moment when every novelty band with their novelty power-pop hits tries to go serious. Add to that list Good Charlotte, who has entered both the lexicons of Top 40 radio and the background music of countless VH1 and E! Network fashion/sex scandals/celebrity gossip specials with their song "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
The pop-punk boys have decided they have to slow things down to adult album-rock midtempo turf and put together a statement song about suicide. And, at the risk of, ahem, killing the suspense, I will go ahead and reveal that Good Charlotte is categorically against suicide. Unlike that bat-head eater Ozzy Osbourne. So parents, you can breathe easier.
The video is four minutes of very serious-looking band members - even their turquoise eye shadow and wallet chains appear to be in mourning - lip- and play-synching to the song from inside a hollowed-out, roofless building. That's all filmed through the blue filter. Then, filmed with the green filter, we get the Soul Asylum "Runaway Train" parade of cameo shots of actual suicide-attempt survivors and people who have lost sons, fathers, sisters and girlfriends to self-termination.
I'm a cynical fuck, that's patently obvious, but even I have to wear the kid gloves when dealing with a topic like suicide. Abortion, cancer, mental retardation - I'll gladly poke merciless fun at those three. Suicide, however, is a completely different demon. One that hits particularly close to home for me because I had a second cousin fatally slit his wrists midway through a 2003 Good Charlotte concert because he "just wanted to end the pain."
NOTE: This review written March 8, 2005.
posted by daytime at 7:43 AM
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