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| I guess it's time I finally do another Nickelback review... |
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The
mix is more polished than last time, you can really start to hear the
band become the radio polished version we know and
love today. Although this album is better than Curb in
some ways, the limitations of Chad Kroger's voice are becoming
apparent; I'm sure he's trying to hit those high notes and push
himself, but he can't really do it. On the last album, Kroger sang it
raspier and scratchier, possibly trying to imitate Kurt Cobain (which
quite a few post-grunge guys tried to do with varying success). It's
apparent his voice isn't on the level of Kurt.
The
album is fairly solid, but one criticism I can make is that none of
the tracks stand out to me. After listening to this album, I can't
think of any particularly interesting moments where I think “This
was an interesting track” or “I wonder how they played this
section”. This thing just starts and ends without leaving an
impression on me. That's what makes this whole album hard for me to
critique; it's so perfectly boring that criticism is hard to come by.
I feel like one of the Neutral aliens from Futurama: after listening
to this album, I have no strong feelings toward it one way or the
other.
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| Prepare for an exhilarating night of neutrality-- or not! |
Track
1: Breathe
The
guitars have less of that 90s noise/fuzz than the debut. The track
begins with a brief talkbox riff before kicking into the main riff.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really like the talkbox guitar sound
in this song. For this song, it's just not impressive to me on a
technical level. And to be fair, I've heard people make their guitars
"talk" with these devices (which I DO find to be extra
cool), so it's not just me ripping on talkboxes.
Track
2: Cowboy Hat
Has
an acoustic intro, which alleviates some of my concerns about the
last album having a bad case of same sound. There's a break where the
acoustic guitar is reincorporated, which is nice.
Track
3: Leader of Men
Also
starts out with an acoustic and an electric guitar with some sort of
phaser/chorus pedal before it kicks into the guitar riff. This track
is also fine.
Track
4: Old Enough
Starts
with some nice guitar fuzz before the drums kick in and it turns into
a standard rock song. The lyrics are about a girl, but don't seem to
be doing that creepy Denny Stalker thing again.
Track
5: Worthy to Say
For
a second, I thought it was a interstitial track, but then the lyrics
started. An interstitial would've broken up the album, and thus would
be a welcome change.
The
track opens up with some hollow-sounding drums (like the drums in Led
Zeppelin's “When the Levee Breaks”) before Kroger's vocals kick
in. It then launches into a standard rock song by the chorus.
Subject
wise, seems to be about Kroger finding a place to do drugs in a back
alley, and the sketchy people who hang around those kinds of spots.
Sometimes they got caught by the cops, sometimes not. I don't know
whether Kroger actually did drugs, or if he's trying to form a bad
boy image to compliment his rock star persona.
Track
6: Diggin' This
Not
very exciting to listen to. I don't think there's a lot interesting
happening musically here, the riff is pretty monotonous, it's only
two notes.
I
guess you could say I'm not diggin' this!
Okay,
that was terrible. Kind of like...
Track
7: Deep
It's
not very interesting here either. Again, I don't think there's much
going on here...
Track
8: One Last Run
This
does sound promising. The build has a lot of energy, and it's
something different from the other two tracks which were kind of
tough to get through. It at least sounds happier than the rest of the
album, which might be why it stuck out to me. And by stick out, I
mean that it stuck out as much as an off-white paint splotch on a
white wall. Apart from the tone shift, I don't think I'd say “Wow,
I'd love to listen to Track 8 again!” It only sticks out in the
context of the album being so same-y.
Track
9: Not Leavin' Yet
Has
an interesting opening riff. One of the better tracks I've heard,
though I wish the tempos were more dynamic on this album in general.
Some of Kroger's screams sound good here, it'd be nice to hear him do
this more and let loose. The band sound really constrained a lot of
times.
On
the other hand, the decision to invoke so much Christian imagery of
Jesus is an odd decision. It comes across as melodramatic, but not in
a good way. The first two lines in this are “Come lie next to me
Jesus Christ/ Holes in hand where a cross used to fit just right”.
What
seems to be challenging me here is what this is a metaphor for.
There's a woman mentioned in the last stanza, but there's more focus
on the Jesus imagery, so it's a little difficult to ascertain what
that metaphor is. In this song, Kroger is Jesus, and the woman is...?
I don't think it's actually a song about Christianity outright
though... that's what Creed is for!
Track
10: Hold Out Your Hand
The
opening is very metal (by Nickelback's standards), but otherwise it
doesn't leave a strong impression on me. The verses are a chugging
guitar before the “loud” piece happens, and the guitars fill out
the rest of the song by the chorus. The only thing of note here is
the solo/break here that is trying for an eastern flavor.
Track
11: Leader of Men (Acoustic)
Started
off with an acoustic guitar coupled with a phaser/ chorus pedal. This
is an acoustic redux of “Leader of Men” but the song never made
an impression on me the first time around, so I didn't realize that
until I looked at the track titles.
This
is a pretty good way to close an album. By the end, you want to wrap
up the album by slowing it down a bit, and acoustic songs are a good
way of doing this.
I
think the saddest part of doing this review was upon realizing I had
lost track of how long I was listening to Nickelback. Please leave
the music masochism to the professionals, nobody should have to come
to this sad realization!
Tune
in next time when I review Silver Side Up. God help me!
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