Good Charlotte announce first album in 7 years, share “Rejects”

Pop punk veterans Good Charlotte have announced their first new album in seven years. Motel Du Cap, their eighth album, is due out on August 8 via Atlantic. Its title was inspired by their first show in five years, when they played a friend’s wedding at France’s Hotel du Cap in 2023. “It was this wild, once-in-a-lifetime vibe,” Joel Madden says. “We were just there to celebrate, no pressure, and it reminded us why we started this—pure, unfiltered connection.”

We have an exclusive, limited edition variant of Motel Du Cap, on deep red vinyl. Pre-order yours here.

First single “Rejects” embraces a classic pop punk formula–a clean, arpeggiated guitar intro that explodes into a punchy, power chord chorus–and when Rolling Stone‘s Maya Georgi said to Joel Madden that the song was “energetically and sonically” similar to Good Charlotte’s early material, he replied, “You’re feeling that exactly right.”

“I don’t even think ‘Rejects’ is necessarily the most obvious single type song, but it’s the one we feel like people should hear first,” he continued. “We think it’s a really great start and a representation of the record and the music.”

About some of the darker subject matter, like the line “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t born at all,” he added, “I am not suicidal and, thank God, I’m not depressed. But I’ve had times in my life where I was, and I had to figure that out, and it was a lot of work to figure out my own mental health and self-esteem. I’m still working on all of it all of the time. We’re all a work in progress.” The song comes with a video directed by Erik Rojas and Lenna Onto, and you can watch that below.

Much of the album was produced with former Bring Me The Horizon member Jordan Fish and Zakk Cevini (including “Rejects”), and it’ll have guest appearances from country singer Luke Borchelt and rapper Wiz Khalifa. There’s also additional production and backing vocals from Charlie Puth.

Good Charlotte will debut “Rejects” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight (6/25), and they’ll be in NYC to perform on the Good Morning America Summer Concert Series on August 8. They told Rolling Stone that they also have plans for a more expansive tour next year, saying, “We are going to do a world tour in ‘26, and I don’t know if that means it’s 20 shows or 40 shows or 60 shows, but whatever it is, it’s a number that we feel every show has to feel unique and special, just like the album does.”