The Young and the Hopeless is the second studio album by American pop punk band Good Charlotte. Produced by Eric Valentine, the album was released on October 1, 2002, in the United States by Epic and Daylight Records.
The album received generally mixed reviews from music critics, but was a major commercial success, going triple platinum in the United States. The album spawned four singles, three of which--"Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", "The Anthem", and "Girls & Boys"--crossed over from modern rock radio to pop radio. In support of the record, the band toured exhaustively, mounting two arena tours in one year.
Video The Young and the Hopeless
Background and recording
After leaving their home state of Maryland, Good Charlotte were signed to Epic imprint Daylight Records and released their debut album, Good Charlotte (2000). It did not sell as well as the label hoped, and the group were nearly dropped from the label. The minor success of "Little Things", coupled with appearing at Warped Tour and touring alongside Blink-182, helped increase their popularity. Sometime afterwards, drummer Aaron Escolopio left the group to join his brother's band, Wakefield. He was replaced by Nate Foutz of Vroom, who stayed with the group for six weeks before leaving. Dusty Bill was then enlisted to play drums, remaining with the group for a year before departing. While promoting the self-titled album, the group met Eric Valentine at a show, and decided to work with him on their next record.
Valentine, who acted as producer, said he was interested in the band because of their writing, which he felt was "a little deeper" than their contemporaries. Joel Madden said they "wanted a hit record, to do something big and important ... and that's where [Valentine] came in." Recording for The Young and the Hopeless took place at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles, California between February 1 and May 1, 2002. Valentine often played mediator between the band members, who would often bicker during pre-production. Josh Freese of The Vandals was brought in as a session member. Joel Madden knew Freese from touring and asked him to drum on the album.
Valentine and Ken Allardyce acted as engineers. Jason Slate, Dave Cooley and Wes Seidman did additional computer editing. David Campbell conducted strings, which were arranged by Valentine and Eric Campbell. The string session was engineered by Nate Kunkel. Valentine mixed the recordings, while Brian Gardner mastered them at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles. Benji Madden said "Nothing about that record was pre-meditated, we were just having fun, and trying to do the best we could to achieve that goal."
Maps The Young and the Hopeless
Composition
Discussing the album name, Joel Madden said The Young and the Hopeless "felt like the generation we were in ... I think it was the way a generation felt in the early 2000s. Everything started to change over." All of the songs on the album, except for "A New Beginning" and "The Anthem", were written by the Madden brothers. "A New Beginning" was written by Benji Madden and Valentine. "The Anthem" was written by the Madden brothers and Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann. All of the songs were arranged by the band, except "A New Beginning" which was arranged by Benji Madden and Valentine. Musically, the album has been classified as pop punk.
With opening track "A New Beginning", the group wanted to make something different. According to Joel Madden, "we love the Danny Elfman stuff, so we just did it [in his style]." "The Anthem" was written after producers of an unspecified movie asked for a song to be included on the soundtrack. According to Benji Madden, the producers wanted a song similar to "Little Things", specifically asking "Can you write another loser anthem?" However, the producers ended up using "Little Things". As a result, "The Anthem" features the lyric "Another loser anthem". The song's bridge was written as a joke and was intended to be replaced at a later point, but was left in. "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" is social commentary on the freedom that celebrities have. While "The Story of My Old Man" references the Madden brothers' dad, it revolves around Benji Madden's battle with alcohol.
"Girls & Boys" was written after an evening where the Madden brothers attempted to gain entry into club, only to be turned away twice. They managed to enter a third club, and according to Benji Madden, they were "just kids without a lot of experience, just kind of observing what was going on." He discovered that the "dynamic of certain types of people with different agendas ... to be amusing." They subsequently wrote the song the following day. "My Blood Valentine" is about a love triangle. Benji Madden said, "Basically there's a guy that knows a girl and wants to be with her so he kills her boyfriend." "Hold On" is anti-suicide song that talks about how to cope with life. "Say Anything" dates back to 1999 under the name "Time After Time" when it had a different set of lyrics. "Emotionless" was written about the realization that the Madden brothers would not talk to their dad again. Joel Madden said: "We have to come to our own kind of closure. It's kind of a song we wrote for ourselves."
Release
Between late June and mid-August 2002, the group went on the Warped Tour. Around this time, The Used were aware that Good Charlotte were in need of a drummer, and introduced them to Chris Wilson. Shortly after this, he became the group's drummer. In July, the group filmed a video for "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous". Directed by Bill Fishman, it features appearances from 'NSYNC vocalist Chris Kirkpatrick, Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass and Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. In the video, the group perform inside a mansion, before police surround the mansion. The band are subsequently arrested and appear before a courtroom. The song was released to modern rock radio on August 13, and released as a CD single on September 9. It featured "Cemetery", "The Click" and an acoustic version of "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" as B-sides. The Young and the Hopeless was released on October 1 through Epic and Daylight Records. The group supported No Doubt on their arena tour for a few shows in early October. In October and November, the group went on a headlining US tour.
The music video for "The Anthem", directed by duo Smith N' Borin, premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on January 15, 2003. The video features the group riding down a street on lowrider bikes (with cameras fixed to the bikes' handlebars), hanging out with their friends and partying. Members of New Found Glory, Mest and Home Grown make appearances during the video. On February 28, "The Anthem" was released as a CD single. It featured acoustic versions of "Riot Girl", "The Young & the Hopeless" and "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" as B-sides. The Young and the Hopeless was released in the UK in February. In March, the group went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand. The group filmed a video for "Girls & Boys" with Smith N' Borin over a two-day break in New Zealand. The video treatment was a concept that the directors had for a while but could not find an artist that it would fit with until they worked with Good Charlotte.
The video had short vignettes that displayed the personality of each band member: Benji Madden acting as a playboy and oiling a woman, guitarist Billy Martin playing video games, Wilson throwing drinks, bassist Paul Thomas relaxing with two women and feeding him pretzels, and Joel Madden doing hip-hop dancing. The ending of the video, with an old lady offering Benji Madden a bowl of cereal, was taken from the film Happy Gilmore (1996). Between April and June, they co-headlined the Honda Civic Tour with New Found Glory. First half the tour was supported by Less Than Jake, with MxPx supporting the second half. In mid-June, the Madden brothers performed at KROQ Weenie Roast acoustically due to guitarist Martin having to attend a wedding. On July 7, "Girls & Boys" was released as a single. The CD version featured "If You Leave", a live version of "The Motivation Proclamation" and "Complicated" as B-sides. In August, the group performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. When performing at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the reaction was very negative with the crowd going as far as to bottle the band.
Between September and November, the group embarked on a headlining US arena tour. The first half was supported by Mest and Something Corporate, while the remaining half was supported by Eve 6 and Goldfinger. At the start of the tour, "Hold On" was released to alternative rock radio. In October, the group filmed a music video for "Hold On" with director Sam Bayer. The video premiered on November 12 on Total Request Live. For the video, the group collaborated with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It features people with deceased relatives and people who have attempted suicide. In December, the group went on a UK tour with Sugarcult and Mest. In January 2004, the group went on a tour of Japan. "Hold On" and "The Young & the Hopeless" were released as a joint single on January 13. A music video was made for "The Young & the Hopeless", directed by Sam Erickson and the Madden brothers. The video was filmed on a sound stage in Indianapolis, Indiana. The set was filled with a variety of trophies and ribbons, which the band destroy towards the end of the video. In September, the album was reissued as a two-CD package with Good Charlotte.
Reception
Critical response
Reviews of The Young and the Hopeless were generally mixed. Tom Semioli of AllMusic called it "downright predictable," an album that "rehash[es] worn clichés aplenty on each track." Greg Kot of Rolling Stone gave the album two stars out of five, remarking, "Good Charlotte are much more persuasive when they let their vulnerability crack through the surface of these slightly overbaked songs, in which elaborate production touches mask the band's three-chord limitations." Kristina Feliciano of Entertainment Weekly deemed the record generic, writing, "These 14 tidily produced songs not only sound a lot like each other, they also resemble ones by someone else -- namely, blink-182. And that band's tunes derive from elsewhere still."
A reviewer for Uncut was slightly more positive, commenting, "Though, on occasion, they are Green Day-lite, there are enough solid rock moments to keep their youthful following happy." Mark Beaumont of NME was one positive review, saying, "This is the sudden extra fold of punk-pop's cerebral cortex, the evolutionary leap into an unexpected maturity." Adrien Begrand of PopMatters was very negative: when citing lyrics on the album that criticize reviews, he responded, "Maybe if the band dropped all the pretense of their supposed punk aesthetic, from the spiky hair to the piercings, and actually wrote and produced albums that contain good, honest, DIY substance, and not this corporate rock sodapop garbage, then perhaps they could find something a bit more pertinent to complain about."
Commercial performance
The Young and the Hopeless debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 117,000 copies. By August 2003, the album had sold over 2 million copies, and by October 2004, three million. At that time, the album was still charting on the Billboard 200, two years after its release. The album's singles lifted the band from modern rock to top 40 radio stations, with all three major singles crossing over to the format. Each had major success of MTV's Total Request Live. As of 2011, it had sold over 3.5 million copies in the US. The album reached number 18 and 104 on the Billboard 200 year-end charts in 2003 and 2004, respectively. The album charted at number six in New Zealand, number seven in Sweden, number nine in Australia, number 15 in the UK, number 20 in Austria, number 24 in Japan, number 37 in Germany, number 46 in Switzerland, number 52 in France, and number 57 in the Netherlands. The album was certified gold in France and Sweden, platinum in Australia and the UK, and double platinum in Canada.
"Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" charted in the US at number six on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, number 11 on the Alternative Songs chart, number 20 on the Hot 100 and Radio Songs charts and number 38 on the Adult Top 40 chart. It charted at number eight in the UK, number 14 in Sweden, number 17 in Australia, number 19 in Switzerland, number 23 in the Netherlands, number 24 in Austria, number 33 in New Zealand. It was certified silver in the UK and gold in Australia. "The Anthem" charted in the US at number ten on the Alternative Songs chart, number 11 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, number 43 on the Hot 100 chart and number 45 on the Radio Songs chart. It charted at number ten in the UK, number 14 in Australia, number 27 in New Zealand, number 28 in Sweden. It was certified silver in the UK, and gold in Australia and the US.
"Girls & Boys" charted in the US at number ten on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, number 48 on the Hot 100 chart and number 53 on the Radio Songs chart. It charted at number six in the UK, number 25 in New Zealand, number 33 in Australia, number 41 in the Netherlands, number 44 in Sweden, number 45 in Austria, number 84 in Switzerland. "Hold On" charted in the US at number 17 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, number 63 on the Hot 100 chart and number 73 on the Radio Songs chart. It charted at number 34 in the UK. "The Young & the Hopeless" charted in the US at number 28 on the Alternative Songs chart. It charted at number 34 in the UK.
Accolades and legacy
The Young and the Hopeless was nominated for the Choice Music: Album award at the Teen Choice Awards. The "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" music video was nominated for Best Group Video, Best Rock Video and Viewer's Choice at the MTV Music Awards. The group eventually won the Viewer's Choice award. "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" won a Kerrang! Award for Best Single. In a retrospective piece in 2012, Rock Sound stated, "The Young And The Hopeless was the start of Good Charlotte's world domination, and opened up a LOT of doors for people just getting into rock and pop-punk circa 2002."
The album was included in Rock Sound's 101 Modern Classics list at number 37. The album was included at number 36 on Rock Sound's "The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time" list. In 2016, the album was given the Classic Album Award at the Alternative Press Music Awards. Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 19 on their list of the 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums. In 2016, Benji Madden said of the album: "We'd gone out into the world and felt both the positive and the negative. And on The Young And The Hopeless we decided to really take a direction and stand up for ourselves, in a way."
Track listing
All songs written by Benji Madden and Joel Madden, except where noted.
Personnel
Personnel per booklet.
Charts and certifications
References
Citations
Sources
External links
- The Young and the Hopeless at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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