The Young and the Hopeless

The Young and the Hopeless is the second album by the American rock band Good Charlotte, released on October 1, 2002, by Epic and Daylight Records. Following the release of their self-titled debut album (2000), the band met producer Eric Valentine and engaged him for their next album. Sessions took place at Barefoot Studios in Los Angeles, California and lasted from February to May 2002; Josh Freese of the Vandals served as a session drummer. Almost all of the songs on it were written by brothers Benji and Joel Madden; three of the tracks were co-written with Valentine, Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann and Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong. Before the album was released, Chris Wilson joined them as a permanent drummer, having been introduced to them in mid-2002. The Young and the Hopeless is a pop-punk and emo album that recalls the work of Blink-182, Green Day, and MxPx.

"Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" served as the lead single to The Young and the Hopeless, released in August 2002. The album was promoted with a support slot for No Doubt before the group embarked on their own headlining tour of the United States, with subsequent shows in Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the following months. "The Anthem" was released as the second single in February 2003 prior to the band co-headlining the Honda Civic Tour with New Found Glory between April and June 2003. A month after that trek concluded, "Girls & Boys" was released as the third single. From September to November 2003, the band embarked on a headlining US arena tour; coinciding with this, "Hold On" was first released to alternative rock radio in September 2003, and later released as a joint single with "The Young & the Hopeless" in January 2004.

The Young and the Hopeless received generally negative reviews from music critics, who made comments about the songs' clichéd lyrics. It did not sell as well as the label hoped, and the group were nearly dropped. and had been performing "The Story of My Life" by April 2001. The minor success of "Little Things", coupled with appearing at Warped Tour Sometime afterwards, drummer Aaron Escolopio left the group He was replaced by Nate Foutz of Vroom, who stayed with the group for six weeks. Dusty Bill was then engaged to play drums;

Valentine, who acted as producer, said he was interested in the band because of their writing, which he felt was "a little deeper" than that of their contemporaries. Valentine often mediated between the band members, who would bicker during pre-production.

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 were written by the Madden brothers, except for "A New Beginning" and "The Anthem". The former was written by Benji Madden and Valentine, and the latter 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. "The Anthem" was written after producers of an unspecified movie asked for a song to include on the soundtrack. According to Benji Madden, the producers wanted a song similar to "Little Things", asking; "Can you write another loser anthem?" The brothers wrote it with Feldmann because they loved Goldfinger and wanted to work with him before they worked with Valentine and Don Gilmore. The movie producers used "Little Things" instead; as a result, "The Anthem" features the lyric "Another loser anthem". "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" features the drum motif of "Lust for Life" (1977) by Iggy Pop, They briefly considered not releasing the track, which they found embarrassing, but they included it on the album because they felt their fans might relate to it.

"Girls & Boys" was written after an evening during which the Madden brothers tried to enter a club but were twice turned away. They were allowed into a third club; according to Benji Madden, they were "just kids without a lot of experience, just kind of observing what was going on". Joel Madden wrote it after receiving letters from fans, who said the band helped them through difficult periods of their lives. "The Day That I Die" discusses a person's final days, while "Emotionless" was written about the realization the Madden brothers would not talk to their father again.

Release

During Good Charlotte's appearance on 2002 Warped Tour, Autopilot Off's Phil Robinson was filling in as Good Charlotte's temporary drummer; the Used, who were aware Good Charlotte needed a drummer, introduced them to Chris Wilson. Shortly after this, Wilson became the group's drummer. The song was released to modern rock radio on August 12 that year and was released as a CD single on September 9. It includes the tracks "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, 2002, through Epic and Daylight Records. The music video for "The Anthem" premiered on MTV's Total Request Live on January 15, 2003; The clip depicts the group riding down a street on lowrider bikes with cameras fixed to the bikes' handlebars and shows the band members partying with their friends. Members of New Found Glory, Mest, and Home Grown appear during the video.

On January 13, 2003, "The Anthem" was released as a single. The CD single includes 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. The group filmed a video for "Girls & Boys" with Smith N' Borin during a two-day break in New Zealand later that year. The video treatment was a concept the directors had for a while but could not find an artist with whom it would fit until they worked with Good Charlotte. The video includes short vignettes that display the personalities of each band member; Benji Madden acts as a playboy and oils a woman; guitarist Billy Martin plays video games; Wilson throws drinks; bassist Paul Thomas relaxes with two women who feed him pretzels; and Joel Madden does hip-hop dancing. The ending of the video shows an elderly woman offering Benji Madden a bowl of cereal; this was influenced by the film Happy Gilmore (1996).

On April 28, 2003, "Girls & Boys" was released as a single in Europe. The CD version also included "If You Leave", a live version of "The Motivation Proclamation", and "Complicated" as B-sides. To promote the group's September–November arena tour, "Hold On" was released to alternative rock radio on October 13, 2003. In October, the group filmed a music video for the track with director Samuel Bayer. For the music video, the group collaborated with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention; it features people with their dead relatives and people who have attempted suicide. Later, on January 13, 2004, the latter track and "The Young & the Hopeless" were released as a joint single. The music video for "The Young & the Hopeless" was directed by Sam Erickson and the Madden brothers. The video was filmed on a sound stage in Indianapolis, Indiana. The set was filled with trophies and ribbons, which the band destroy towards the end of the video. In September 2003, the album was reissued as a two-CD package with Good Charlotte.

The Young and the Hopeless was pressed on vinyl in 2014 and 2016 by Enjoy the Ride Records. Four tracks from it—"The Anthem" (by Million $ Mano and featured Hollywood Holt), "Girls & Boys" (by Ed Banger Allstars), "The Young & the Hopeless" (by Mr. Hahn) and "Hold On" (by the Academy Is...)—were remixed for inclusion on Good Charlotte's Greatest Remixes (2008) compilation. "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous", "The Anthem", "Girls & Boys", "The Young & the Hopeless" and "Hold On" were included on the band's Greatest Hits (2010) compilation.

Touring and TV appearances

Between late June and mid-August 2002, Good Charlotte appeared on that year's Warped Tour. The Madden brothers embarked on an Australian promotional tour, which included appearances on The Panel and whatUwant, in addition to a performance for Triple M. The band appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in early October, before supporting No Doubt on their arena tour for a few shows; Good Charlotte unsuccessfully tried to appear on the whole trek, but were eventually replaced by Garbage. In October and November, Good Charlotte embarked on a headlining US tour, and appeared at three shows of the Boom Boom Huck Jam tour. Later in November, the band appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly. Upon returning to the US, they played a variety of radio festivals, and concluded the year with a performance at MTV's New Year's Eve broadcast in New York City. They started 2003 with Japanese and European tours, with New Found Glory in January and February 2003. they co-headlined the three-month long Honda Civic Tour with New Found Glory between April and June 2003. The first half the trek was supported by Less Than Jake and Roger Miret and the Disasters, with MxPx supporting the second half. In August, the group performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. When playing at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the audience's reaction was very negative and some of them bottled the band. The Living End were also due to support, but had to cancel, citing issues with their US visas. On November 12, 2003, Good Charlotte appeared on Total Request Live. In December, the group went toured the UK with Sugarcult and Mest. In January 2004, the group performed various shows in Japan.

Critical reception

Reviewers were split on the album's pop-punk sound. In his brief review, rock critic Robert Christgau summarised this aspect as: "honest pop band presents its songs punk, and that makes some people so mad". Begrand went further; 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". Kerrang! countered this, stating that "unlike the usual dumb-ass punk pop japery peddled" by their peers, the band were able to do it with "substance, style, and an occasional deeper exploration of sociopolitical themes". Beaumont and Janet Foreyt of The Spokesman-Review backed this up, with the former adding that Good Charlotte "are actually Jimmy Eat World with something interesting to say", while the latter said that after "several listens [...] the surprisingly intelligent lyrics begin to shine". The "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" music video was nominated for Best Group Video, Best Rock Video and Viewer's Choice awards at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards; "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" won a 2003 Kerrang! Award for Best Single. Cleveland.com ranked "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" at number 89 and "The Anthem" at number 38 on their list of the top 100 pop-punk songs.

Following the release of The Young and the Hopeless, Good Charlotte became one of the most prominent acts of the early 2000s pop punk movement. In 2005, it was one of the launch titles for the DualDisc format. In a retrospective piece in 2012, Rock Sound stated that the album was the beginning of the band's "world domination, and opened up a LOT of doors for people just getting into rock and pop-punk circa 2002". Luke Hemmings of 5 Seconds of Summer has expressed admiration for the album. Rock Sound ranked The Young and the Hopeless at number 22 on the list of best albums in their lifetime, number 36 on The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time list, and number 37 in 101 Modern Classics list. In 2016, the album was given the Classic Album Award at the Alternative Press Music Awards. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 19 on their list of the 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums.

Commercial performance

The Young and the Hopeless debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 117,000 copies. By August 2003, the album had sold over two million copies, and by October 2004, three million. It reached number 18 and 104 on the Billboard 200 year-end charts in 2003 and 2004, respectively. number 37 in Germany, number six on Mainstream Top 40, number 11 on Alternative Songs, and number 38 on Adult Top 40. Outside of the US, the song peaked at number eight in the UK, number 14 in Sweden, number 17 in Australia, and number 19 in Switzerland. It was certified gold by the ARIA and by the BPI. and number 28 in Sweden. "The Anthem" was also certified silver by the BPI.

"Girls & Boys" peaked at number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100, The song was certified silver by the BPI.

Good Charlotte

Joel Maddenlead vocals
Benji Maddenguitars, backing vocals; lead vocals (tracks 11 and 13), co-lead vocals (track 12)
Billy Martinguitars, keyboards
Paul Thomasbass

Additional musicians

Josh Freesedrums
David Campbellstring conductor
Eric Valentinestring arranger
Eric Campbellstring arranger

Production

Eric Valentineproducer, engineer, mixing
Ken Allardyceengineer
Stephen Jarvisequipment technician
Jason Slateradditional computer editing
Dave Cooleyadditional computer editing
Wes Seidmanadditional computer editing
Nate Kunkelstring engineer
Trevor Whateverstudio assistant
Elsie May Valentineadditional studio assistant
Brian Gardnermastering

Artwork

Sam Ericksonphotography
Sean Evansart direction

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Chart performance for The Young and the Hopeless

! scope="col"| Chart (2002–2003)

! scope="col"| Peak position

!scope="row"| Canadian Albums (Billboard)

|align="center"|40

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| style="text-align:center;"|24

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+ Year-end chart performance for The Young and the Hopeless

!scope="col"| Chart (2002)

!scope="col"| Position

!scope="row"|Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 74

! scope="col"| Chart (2003)

! scope="col"| Position

! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)

| 31

! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)

| 28

! scope="row"| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)

| 23

! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)

| 47

!scope="row" | US Billboard 200

| 18

! scope="row"|Worldwide Albums (IFPI)

|33

! scope="col"| Chart (2004)

! scope="col"| Position

!scope="row" | US Billboard 200

| 108

Decade-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|+ Decade-end chart performance for The Young and the Hopeless

!Chart (2000–2009)

!Position

!scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| style="text-align:center;"|126

Certifications

References

Citations

Sources

External links

The Young and the Hopeless at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
Analysis of "Hold On" in The Forgotten Mourners by Magdaline DeSousa