This review covers the punk rock track Good Charlotte – Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.
This track was released in 2002 on the album the Young and the Hopeless.
The track starts with a drum kit. The vocals then come in with some EQ filtering with short guitar notes. The backup vocals join the track with the filtering removed. After a snare roll, the guitars come in more fully. The track then drops out with only a vocal being left.
Right after, the vocals take the track into the main chorus. Right after, the vocals take the track into the next verse. The guitars drop out a fair bit as well.
There is a guitar shred as the vocals hit the bridge. There is a brief snare and guitar before the vocals take the track into the main chorus. The rest of the elements rejoin the track. This ends with the track elements dropping out with the vocal having a delay effect. A smash sound and a siren sample then makes an appearance. The bass guitar backs part of this and a heavily filtered element backs the other part.
After a click, the vocals take the track into another round of the main chorus with altered backing elements. The vocals extend the main chorus with the guitars and drum kit going through the previous set up. Those vocals then lead the track out with everything else cutting out.
A strong aspect of the track is the themes throughout. The lyrics do a great job at painting a frustrating picture of anger directed at the upper class. I would argue that this is the strongest aspect of the track.
The vocals do a great job. There is some variety with the occasional application of EQ filtering. They are also nicely articulate and work quite well.
The drum kit also works quite well throughout. It is definitely showcased nicely here. To a lesser extend, the bass guitar also gets nicely showcased here too.
Finally, the remaining guitars do a decent job at rounding things out.
Overall, this is a very solid track. Almost every element is showcased to varying degrees. It works nicely for the overall track. The themes throughout the track work nicely as well. They are well articulated through the lyrics. The vocals are good as well. Overall, it’s hard to say anything bad about the overall production quality, so a very solid track worth listening to.
Score
7.5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
