Predictable

So naturally, the day after I give up on finding a music video to spotlight is when I finally remember one of my favorites that I had intended to mention a while back.

Song: Predictable
Artist: Good Charlotte

Before posting this, I searched through this site about a dozen times in utter disbelief that I hadn't already talked about this one. But the results came back that surprisingly I had indeed forgotten about it, so I'm going to make up for that lack.

The video is set in two contrasting scenes. The first, during the verses, is one of singer Joel Madden walking down the street of a seemingly perfect neighborhood, looking entirely out of place. The farther he goes, he starts to pass by vignettes of his band-mates where there's clearly something a little off, such as a lemonade stand that sells "Forgotten Dreams" and "Lost Hopes." Everyone he passes looks at him like he's the one who's odd, and that uncomfortable feeling properly sets the tone for the rest of the video as well as the song.

The second scenery, during the each chorus, is of the entire band performing in a kind of "Dr. Suess-meets-Tim Burton" storybook-esque room, where shadows are abundant and proportions are wacked. Actually, the conceptual art for the video (and the actual art from the intro) was created by guitarist Billy Martin, who drew his inspiration from Tim Burton's works.

In the song itself, there's a string part during the verses that helps to set everything on edge, and the guitar on top of that is borderline mysterious/creepy. Those parts are instrumentally more prominent thanks to the great minimalistic backdrop the drums and bass provide. And of course, Madden's vocals give this track the vibe of an angst-y punk rock-type ballad, complete with a couple of all-out rants even.

Apparently, it was written about Joel and Benji's father, and how he had left them when they were growing up, although it does easily double as describing a typical relationship saga.