Say what you will about Good Charlotte, you can't call them slackers.

At a point in their career when the safe move would be to remake their last album with a few cosmetic changes, these pop-punk chart-toppers earn points for not playing it safe. The Chronicles of Life and Death, as its title would suggest, is an ambitious undertaking; a concept album about fame, love and the true meaning of life.

Musically, it's certainly their most daring and sophisticated work, with the band dialling back the boisterous attack for an approach that incorporates string sections, lush orchestrations, grand arrangements and plenty of keyboards. On I Just Wanna Live, the boys flirt with Nellyesque hip-hop, while the strummy bounce of The World is Black shares a bit of its DNA with OutKast's Hey Ya!

But all the lavish production and musical envelope-pushing is slightly out of balance with the lyrical content, which tends toward typical twentysomething messages about living for today, choosing love over money, keeping your dreams alive and yadda yadda yadda.

We're not sure if that means Good Charlotte are trying too hard or not trying hard enough. Either way, you still have to give them credit for trying.

Track Listing
1. Once Upon a Time: The Battle of Life and Death
2. Chronicles of Life and Death
3. Walk Away (Maybe)
4. S.O.S.
5. I Just Wanna Live
6. Ghost of You
7. Predictable
8. Secrets
9. Truth
10. World Is Black
11. Mountain
12. We Believe
13. It Wasn't Enough
14. In This World (Murder)
15. Falling Away [*] (on the Life Version)
15. Meet My Maker [*] (on the Death Version)