{"id":99863,"date":"2025-08-08T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=99863"},"modified":"2025-08-07T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:44:11","slug":"review-good-charlotte-motel-du-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-good-charlotte-motel-du-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Good Charlotte &#8211; Motel Du Cap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s easy to forget that once upon a time, <strong>Good Charlotte<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>were one of the biggest pop-punk bands. However, <em>&#8216;The Young and the Hopeless&#8217;<\/em> was released over 20 years ago. In that time, Joel Madden (vocals) and Benji Madden (guitar, vocals), alongside Paul Thomas (bass), Billy Martin (guitar, keyboards), have expanded to dance-rock, emo-pop, and alt-rock. Meanwhile, the Madden twins have built some industry credibility through their artist management, publishing, and production company, MDDN.<\/p>\n<p>In the present day, it&#8217;s been seven years since we had a new\u00a0<strong>Good Charlotte\u00a0<\/strong>record. Admittedly, unless you&#8217;re a diehard fan, you&#8217;ve not been yearning for one.\u00a0Their eighth album,\u00a0<em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap,&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>was spurred on by the quartet playing a private gig for a friend&#8217;s wedding in H\u00f4tel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the south of France in 2023. The combination of being reinvigorated to play together again, along with a lack of expectation,\u00a0<em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap&#8217;<\/em> is set up as <strong>Good Charlotte<\/strong> returning to their roots.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Good Charlotte - Rejects (Official Video)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cPwmrVLo4b8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lead single, <em>&#8216;Rejects&#8217;<\/em>, along with &#8216;Stepper&#8217;, swell with familiarity, providing an accessible double dose of pop-rock.\u00a0<em>&#8216;Mean&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>&#8216;Vertigo&#8217;<\/em> (featuring rapper <strong>Petti Hendrix<\/strong>) also help fill the energetic pop-punk quota later on. Yet, with a habit of jumping between genres,\u00a0<em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap&#8217;<\/em> does just that. One moment you&#8217;re dipping into country with <em>&#8216;Deserve You&#8217;<\/em> (featuring <strong>Luke Borchelt<\/strong>), the throwaway hip-hop-infusion on <em>&#8216;Life is Great&#8217;<\/em> (featuring <strong>Wiz Khalifa<\/strong>) or\u00a0<em>&#8216;Bodies&#8217;<\/em> pulsating synth-rock. While fellow Maryland native\u00a0<strong>Zeph<\/strong> come provides one of the record&#8217;s most impressionable cameos on the energetic (but bittersweet) <em>&#8216;Pink Guitar&#8217;<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Introspection weighs heavily throughout, and often takes shape in the form of ballads.\u00a0<em>&#8216;The Dress Rehearsal&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>aims to pull off the rising, grandiose power ballad, albeit one with sickly results. Thankfully, <em>&#8216;Castle in the Sand&#8217;<\/em> fares better. It&#8217;s a sweeping, heartstring-tugging moment that allows Joel Madden to flourish with sincerity.\u00a0<em>&#8216;I Don&#8217;t Work Here Anymore&#8217;<\/em> anchors down on the reflective tone. Placing Madden back in Maryland during the band&#8217;s early days, working a dead-end job, and giving it up to follow his dream.\u00a0Meanwhile,\u00a0<em>&#8216;GC Forever&#8217;<\/em> provides a sense of finality. Besides its title, sweeping strings, retrospective soundbites, and plucky acoustics are joined by persevering words of <em>&#8220;never say never&#8221;<\/em>. Ultimately, it hits home on the introspective mentality with admirable execution.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth mentioning that Jordan Fish and Zakk Cervini (A Day to Remember, Waterparks, Coheed and Cambria) lend a hand on writing and production. It considerably gives <em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap&#8217;<\/em> a hint of relevancy. In turn, it allows the record not to completely lean into nostalgia, at least musically. Furthermore, it may not put\u00a0<strong>Good Charlotte<\/strong> back on the pop-punk perch, but <em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>has enough hooks and contemplative cuts to return to.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8216;Motel Du Cap&#8217;<\/em> by\u00a0<strong>Good Charlotte<\/strong> is out now on\u00a0<strong>Atlantic Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Find <strong>Good Charlotte<\/strong> on:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/goodcharlotte\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/goodcharlotte\">X (Formerly Twitter)<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/goodcharlotteband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@goodcharlotte\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TikTok<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/5aYyPjAsLj7UzANzdupwnS?si=xo8DyKv0TQiAiesS2BLhoQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spotify<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/music.apple.com\/gb\/artist\/good-charlotte\/468788\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple Music<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodcharlotte.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Good Charlotte offer a reflective, genre-blending comeback &#8211; embracing their roots while showing flashes of renewed purpose and emotional weight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1498],"class_list":["post-99863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-good-charlotte"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Good Charlotte - Motel Du Cap - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&#039;Motel Du Cap&#039; is a reflective genre-spanning album mixing pop-punk roots, heartfelt ballads, and a touch of modern production\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Good Charlotte - Motel Du Cap - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#039;Motel Du Cap&#039; 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