“If
you stare into the Nickelback, the Nickelback stares back at you” –
Nietzsche, Me
Why
the hell am I intentionally listening to Nickelback?
Oh,
right. For your enjoyment...
Goddamn
you!
I
remember listening to this the first time a few weeks ago for
curiosity's sake, because a lot of people on the internet have said
that Nickelback's pre-Silver Side Up work is actually quite good. I'd
say that while it's a little better than their mainstream work (cough
Photograph cough), it's not an undiscovered gem. In general there
isn't a ton of variety in terms of song compositions, and most of the
tracks stick to the same tempo. Wikipedia defined this work as
grunge, but a lot of great grunge albums attempted to use varied song
structures, like Superunknown. By doing nothing but hard-hitting
songs one after the other, it can be fatiguing. A few more slow songs
would be a welcome addition to break up the album. Likewise, more
dynamic compositions would be a welcome addition to Curb, though I
can excuse it as Nickelback were just starting off.
Unlike
some of their later work, this album doesn't have the same
overproduced, over-compressed sound that later albums did, which
became especially prevalent after lead singer Chad Kroger began
analyzing pop songs for Silver Side Up. As someone who listens to a
lot of punk and grunge, a rough mix would obviously appeal to me
immensely. We might as well begin...
Track
4: Curb
Obviously
supposed to be the heavy track. Often, a band will put the most
effort into a title track. The songs uses classic Pixies-style
soft-loud dynamics, which most people were doing by the mid 1990s.
The verses are mostly a mellow quiet piece, occasionally interrupted
by a loud piece. The chorus is the loud piece, and has a hard driven
rhythm guitar.
Track
5: Where?
Same
Tool-esque style, but a decent solo. Basically a break up song.
Track
8: Fly
Probably
one of the rougher mixes on the album, this is one of the first songs
they recorded for the band. Just like the title track, it uses
Pixies-style dynamics, which is something common to most grunge
bands.
Track
9: Just For
You
know, I don't think Nickelback aren't at their worst when they make
generic rock songs. They're at their worst when they make things that
are a little too specific. Case-in-point: just like the first time I
listened to this album, “Just For” struck me as the most
emotional. For whatever reason, I feel more of an emotional impact
from this track than any of the others.
I
don't generally look at lyrics, but I decided to find them to see why
this song is more emotional for curiosity's sake. The lyrics
certainly catch your eye, that's for sure.
A
guy hurt a girl, and Kroger is angry that this happened to her. This
is natural reaction, but the way he writes about it is... off setting
and unpleasant. The first lines are “I want to take his eyes out/
Just for looking at you/ Yes I do.” If I had a drink in hand right
now, I'd have spat all over my screen! This is not romantic in any
way, it's alarming and creepy. And believe me, the lyrics do not
improve!
Reading
another musician's lyrics is like a view into their mind. For
instance, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer is generally emotional and awkward,
but in an endearing way. By contrast, Kroger seems like a very creepy
man just based on these lyrics. If he isn't just writing a character
for the song, I'm deeply worried.
Rocked
Reviews calls these kinds of Nickelback songs the “Creepy Denny's
Stalker” for their “Regretting the Past” series, and I have to
agree with him wholeheartedly. Women do not find this charming; it's
just unsettling and unpleasant. That girl should run the other way! I
mean, I don't just need a pallet cleanser after that-- I need a
pallet enema! I'm sure you will too! Okay, let's try to stay
positive, kids!
Track
10: Left
The
guitar solo does seem to stand out here, but apart from that, theres
isn't much to say about this song.
Track
11: Window Shopper
It
does sound less dark and heavy than the other songs (thank god!), but
I have a difficult time of describing who it sounds like. The
different composition certainly helps to break up the album; I wish
there were a few more of them on here. The snare is really prominent,
but I would've turned it down in the mix. I don't think it's really
fair to complain about the mix sounding muddy here as they probably
did this all on a shoestring budget.
Track
12: I Don't Have
I
don't know, how do you do a closer for this? The last song on an
album should give you a sense of completion, but this just feels like
another track.
In
conclusion, while Curb doesn't show Nickelback's problems at their
worst (overproduction, same-sound), you can see some of the issues
begin to appear. The songwriting and playing is simplistic, though
that's to be expected of a band just starting out. Some fans have
said that Nickelback had a lot of potential on their early albums,
and I can see it. Maybe if the band had improved themselves over time
by making more diverse compositions, less Creepy Denny's Stalker, and
more diverse song structures, they'd be more respected now.
Unfortunately, we didn't get that!
