One careful listen to the songs of their new Epic album, The Young and The Hopeless, and the message is clear: Good Charlotte is growing up fast.

In these 14 new original songs, all co-written by GC founding members and identical twin brothers Benji and Joel, the melodies are more diverse, the edge is more aggressive, the playing and singing are stronger and more confident than ever before. Whatever the style or subject matter, every track reveals new maturity, expanded creativity, and hard-won wisdom.

About The Album

The Young and The Hopeless was recorded between February and May 2002. Good Charlotte worked with Eric Valentine, who produced, mixed and recorded the album at his own Barefoot Studio in Hollywood, CA. Valentine's previous credits include Third Eye Blind, Smashmouth, the Dwarves, and Queens of the Stone Age.

"Eric's main job was to make us play the best we could play on this record," explains Benji. "We recorded mostly in full takes, without editing. That was hard, but I'm really glad we did it. You can tell it's authentic."

The brothers had no trouble coming up with new material, their intensive roadwork acting as a creative stimulus. "I write better on tour," says Benji, "in places where I don't know anyone, where I'm in the middle of nowhere."

"Joel's got this flair, this spark-that's why he's the lead singer-and a lot of times he can take a song from being just okay to being great. At other times, he'll have ideas and not know what to do with them. But I'm good with structures and arrangements, so we work well together even though we're really different people."

About The Songs

"Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" - The first single from The Young and The Hopeless is this biting commentary on both celebrity self-pity and justice that's bought and paid for. It's a fearless critique of American culture from a street-level point of view.

"Hold On" - In the course of their many months on tour, Good Charlotte encountered hundreds of new fans across the country. Benji and Joel met many that shared their experiences of poverty and abuse, who contemplated running away or even suicide. The twins wrote this song in response, and today Benji cites it as one of his favorite tracks on The Young and The Hopeless. The unforgettable chorus goes: "Hold on, if you feel like letting go/Hold on, it gets better than you know."

"Boys and Girls" - A caustic and witty critique of interpersonal relationships tainted by mindless materialism: "Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money/Boys will laugh at girls when they're not funny." "It's pretty self-explanatory," says Benji. "I hope it pisses some people off!"

"The Anthem" - A song for the so-called "losers" in every junior high and high school across America, the ones who are shunned and mocked for their appearance or their foreign background or their lack of money. Benji and Joel knew-and befriended-some of those kids, and now have given them what Benji calls "a song that would help them get through the day. It's a song that could help them say, 'hey, bring it on-it won't bother me because I don't wanna be like you.'"

"Bloody Valentine" - Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's classic story The Telltale Heart. This haunting, tragic tale of mad love is a prime example of the twins' more mature writing style and their expanded creative horizons.

"Emotionless" - When the twins were 16, their father walked out on Christmas Eve, leaving their mother alone to care for four children. His departure sent the family into a financial tailspin, ultimately lead to eviction from their home.

"I feel like my dad affected my life in a bad way for long enough when I was younger, and I'm not gonna let him do it anymore," say Benji. "I'm not gonna carry that burden of being hateful and angry. So 'Emotionless' is a song of forgiveness. I'll forgive him for my sake: I won't let those feelings about him affect the way I treat other people or the way I live my life."