The Madden Brothers
Greetings From California… (Capitol)

As even the most open-minded of Warped Tour aficionados will agree, Joel and Benji Madden aren’t without their crimes. Miss the days when punk rock was three chords, spit-and-spikes attitude, and songs about God saving the Queen and John Wayne being a Nazi? Thanks in no small part to sugar-jacked hitmakers like Good Charlotte—which featured both siblings—Sid Vicious was rolling in his grave long before that Acura car commercial came along.

Greetings From California… finds the Madden twins starting fresh. Forget giving Blink 182 and A Simple Plan another run for their royalty cheques in the pop-punk trenches; Benji and Joel ditch the whiny guitars and distortion pedals for a sound that transcends the Fueled by Ramen back catalogue. The results are far less obnoxious. The album-opening “Dear Jane” is a bass-driven shot of driving pop marked by tasteful synths and acoustic-jangle guitars, while “Brixton” plunks the Beach Boys on a Jamaican beach with Jack Johnson and a giant garbage bag of Kingston Kush.

You want beautiful and unapologetically heartfelt? Head directly to the lovely “U R”, which marries a Sublime snare pattern with a ’50s doo-wop vocal hook. If clever is more your thing, give the Maddens mad props for “Jealousy (All Your Friends Live in Silver Lake)”, a tinny new-wave tribute that’s admirably almost as smart as its title.

Congratulations, fellows: against impossible odds, all is forgiven.