Good Charlotte

Generation RX (MDDN/BMG)

The honorary Aussies come full circle on their shortest, but perhaps sweetest album yet. The capitalist-pop hooks that defined their 2016 LP, ‘Youth Authority’ (a half-assed comeback that really needed this course-correcting follow-up) are abundant in the structures that LP7 are built on, but the quintet’s pop-punk roots break through at every corner, choruses loud and verses livid. Guitars are the chunkiest and most authentically focused they’ve been since the early oughts, with Benji Madden proving that even as the group cosy further up to the mainstream, he still has a keen ear for a solid riff. ‘True rock’ devotees need not bother, but for those who like a bit of sugar with their shred, Generation RX delivers the goods. Sarah Comey