however, the band rebelled by going in a dark and moody direction with some sarcastic moments on "I Just Wanna Live". With a lot of pressure to come up with another hit single, the band opted to go as dark as they could. The resulting album was "a cohesive record" that dealt with the members' thoughts about their "own mortality in the emotional, physical and musical sense." A conscious effort was made to focus on mortality, as well as life and death; hope serves as recurring theme throughout the album. Musically, the album has been classified as pop punk, with elements of British punk rock, emo, arena rock, goth rock, hip-hop, new wave and rock opera. Michael Odell of Blender described The Chronicles of Life and Death as a concept album that "span[s] the outer reaches of [Good Charlotte's] topsy-turvy philosophical world". Half of the album was written by Benji and Joel Madden, while they co-wrote the remaining tracks with Valentine, Feldmann or guitarist Billy Martin. Piano and string instruments appear throughout the album. The opening track "Once Upon a Time: The Battle of Life and Death" is an instrumental featuring strings and a Japanese choir. The track, along with the ending of "In This World (Murder)", represents the cycle of life and death. The title track opens with the beeping sound of a heart-rate monitor before Joel Madden's vocal begins over a power pop groove in the style of the Kinks. "Walk Away (Maybe)" fuses hard rock-edged verses with indie rock-esque strumming patterns. The rock track "S.O.S." is a suicide note portraying drama. The dance-rock track "I Just Wanna Live", the album's biggest musical departure from the band's usual style, combines power chords, string samples and disco beats, with Madden rapping over it in the vein of Nelly. The lyrics talk about celebrity life, refencing "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" in the process. The new wave "Ghost of You" features synthesizers and strings, and is reminiscent of New Order. "Predictable" starts off with strings before shifting into a spoken-word rant by Madden. "Secrets" comes across as sounding like a Morrissey and Jerry Finn collaboration. The piano ballad "The Truth" is followed by the keyboard and acoustic-driven "The World Is Black", which was compared to the Cure's sound. Madden said "We Believe" sounded like a track that could be sung by Elton John or Billy Joel. He wrote it