From the opening sounds of Good Charlotte's fourth album Good Morning Revival, it's evident that the world-famous band who've sold over nine million albums has revolutionized its sound for 2007. And by the time the optimistic parting shot March On rolls around, it's evident that this is the vibrant, adventurous and unexpected rock album that has redefined the group.

Returning to work with producer Don Gilmore (Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne), who helmed Good Charlotte's eponymous 2000 breakthrough debut, was the decisive change that reinvigorated the band. After a pair of successful albums like 2002's tremendously popular triple platinum The Young and the Hopeless and 2004's subsequent million-selling follow-up The Chronicles of Life and Death, GC singer Joel Madden says its modus operandi on Good Morning Revival was simply to "make a record that we loved and that felt good."

In an effort to achieve that goal, Gilmore challenged Joel and his identical twin, Good Charlotte's guitarist Benji Madden, to bring their A game. And he was highly critical. "We threw out 50 or 60 songs and pretty much started over," Benji says. "Don was like, 'I want to reinvent you guys. I want people to ask themselves, 'Is that Good Charlotte?'"

"Don wanted a fresh, new us," Joel explains. "And he was like, 'If you guys are ready for that then I want to work with you. And we were like, 'Dude, we are so ready for that, you have no idea.' He kept pushing us and we'd keep bringing songs to him and he'd be like, 'Nah. It's not what I'm looking for. And then he was like, 'you know what? I'm going to take you guys out of L.A. and you're going to work without interruptions and then we're going to get it.'"

"We wanted to love every track," bassist Paul Thomas explains. "Our goal this time out was to make it an awesome listen straight through. No fucking filler, man."

Unlike their bandmates Paul Thomas (bass), Billy Martin (guitarist/keyboardist) and new drummer Dean Butterworth, the Maddens had become fixtures of the paparazzi-addled L.A. nightclub scene as well as prominent DJs. The opportunity to ship up to Vancouver to create new music was absolutely necessary and remarkably fruitful.

After the first day in British Columbia the Maddens had put down the bulk of Victim of Love, the contagious harmony-laden rock & roll song. "We knew we were onto something," Joel explains. And literally every day it was like we were writing a new song. After two months in Canada, isolating ourselves and getting away from everything that we were comfortable with was amazing. We came away with most of what you hear on this record."

By the time the group officially hit the studio with Gilmore, the downtime between its last tour and its official reconvening was as therapeutic as it was motivational. "The fact that we were able to stop, take a deep breath and kind of find some appreciation for all that we've accomplished has a lot to do with why this record sounds as vital and electrifying as it does," says Martin. "We used to just take every offer that came our way and we'd never get much in the way of downtime. Now that we've had that time off it feels like a new band in a lot of ways."

One of the album's highlights is the blistering, unforgettable rocker The River: an impassioned song about sin and redemption that traverses the dark side of Los Angeles. The band brought longtime friends and fellow musicians M. Shadows and Synyster Gates (of Avenged Sevenfold) into the mix, marking the first time Good Charlotte has officially collaborated with another artist on an album. It turned out to be a natural fit for both bands.

"We've been friends with Avenged for a longtime. This wasn't planned, but it ended up working out," Joel explains. "We were sitting around listening to some new music and they liked that song so we asked them to jump on. It felt right and sounded really cool. Aside from being friends of ours, we're also fans of their music and since this is our first collaboration, we couldn't be happier that they're a part of our record."

The album sustains its momentum with tracks like the fuzzy, club-driven Dancefloor Anthem and the genre-defying, YouTube favorite Keep Your Hands Off My Girl (which was introduced to audiences on the band's U.S. tour in autumn 2006).

"Honestly, the first time I heard it, I was like, 'Are you fucking kidding me? People will never know that's a Good Charlotte song,'" concedes Billy. "And then Joel's like, 'Well, that's the point!' But soon enough it had me in its clutches."