Review Nickelback - Here and Now 2011

Tracks
1. This Means War
2. Bottoms Up
3. When We Stand Together
4. Midnight Queen
5. Gotta Get Me Some
6. Lullaby
7. Kiss It Goodbye
8. Trying Not to Love You
9. Holding on to Heaven
10. Everything I Wanna Do
11. Don't Ever Let It End

Band:
Chad Kroeger – vocals, guitar
Ryan Peake – guitar, backing vocals
Mike Kroeger – bass
Daniel Adair – drums, backing vocals

Discography:
Curb (1996)
The State (2000)
Silver Side Up (2001)
The Long Road (2003)
All the Right Reasons (2005)
Dark Horse (2008)

Guests:
Brian Howes - Additional Guitar

Info
Brian Howes - Production
Joey Moi – production, engineering
Jay Van Poederooyen – engineering, mixing
Scott Cooke – engineering, editing
Chris Lord-Alge – mixing
Randy Staub – mixing
Keith Armstrong – mixing assistance
Zach Blackstone – mixing assistance
Nik Karpen – mixing assistance
Gail Marowitz – art direction
Travis Shinn – photography
Brennan Brousseau – cover artwork
Chad Kroeger – production
Ryan Peake – production
Mike Kroeger – production
Daniel Adair – production

Released 21/11-2011
Reviewed 26/11-2011

Links:
nickelback.com
myspace
youtube
roadrunner

Canadian Nickelback is a well known and well selling rock band, total sales are close to fifty million for this band and that is quite an impressive and respectable number. Despite selling that many album the reception for their music has been all but unanimously good, many reviewer really dislike this band and their music. The Nickelback fans have a solution for defending their band by saying that all who dislike their music are Nickelback haters which seems as an idiotic thing to say, if you like a band and someone else doesn’t, does it really matter? There are after all valid points to much of the negativism towards this band, the sexist lyrics, the male chauvinistic lyrics and attitude, the drug glorification in their lyrics are all negatives, especially as their music is mainly directed at children and young teenagers. I on the other hand have no real opinion of this band as I have no relation to their music and haven’t really heard any of their earlier album besides whatever singles I have heard on the radio and I cannot really say that they had done much other than making me aware of what kind of music to expect from the band, I have neither loved nor hated those singles.

One comment often heard of this band is that they make the same album over and over again, not really evolving in any sense of the way. On my part I cannot really verify or discard these comments as I haven’t hear enough of their band, what I can say on this is that their singles haven’t really changed much over the last few years, they all sound more or less the same at least. But still, one I thing I really enjoy when coming to popular bands especially is to be able to write good reviews about them as I like to point that finger in the face of those who hate anything that works commercially and that is why I was looking forward to take a crack at this album when I noticed that we got it for review. I would say that the album has a really nice looking cover, so at least a first impression is very positive but that was only of the mail I got saying that I could download this album and that was of course before I heard it.

Musically it is what is sometimes called post-grunge or alternative rock, quite simplistic and slightly melodic rock music focused on catchy choruses and the writing is geared towards radio friendly hit songs. The lyrics are about sex, drugs, parties and rock’n’roll and that kinds of things, I think you might safely say that it is not something that will change the way we look at the music. They have a for the genre rather typical vocalist, darkish masculine voice that often cracks when he gets a little excited as when he is singing of the girl licking his gun for instance. Kind of typical styled rock music I would say, there are a few riffs here and there and some aggressive tones as well but mainly it is rather typical radio friendly rock music. Easily accessible and radio friendly music that is written to easily stick on your mind, Here and Now has eleven tracks and it plays for just under 40 minuter.

At least it is short, that is the most positive thing I can say about it. I feel embarrassed for the band’s sake when I listen to this album, imagine being in an embarrassing conversation when you start twisting and turning and your eyes desperately search for the exit, that is how it feels to listen to this album. I know I might come out as negative, mean or maybe a hater but how do you really tell the story of a poor album without offending. Actually I am not really worried about offending anyone with this review as I was offended by what I heard on this album, what we are given on Here and Now is offensive to the audience and the only way anyone can like this album is if they never heard any other album in his/her life. Even the rubbish album in the same genre by Takida I reviewed earlier this year is a lot better than this.

Nickelback’s main problem with this album is that it feels completely uninspired, like it was written by someone so bored that he’d rather die than write this music. It is a bit like the counting of money from sales have taken too much time from the song writing, I really hope that this is the worst album ever made by this band because if it isn’t they should really be facing charges for the offensive crap they call music. Adding to the terrible song writing is the vocals, after listening to this album for ten times I think the singer of Nickelback is the worst singer who have ever lived. The singer of Endstille is way better than this guy and the sounds he makes cannot even remotely be described as singing. Usually I think this kind of music is quite good and cannot really be awful but this album has really changed that, I thought the Takida album was the worst possible album that could be made in this style, I was wrong.

Even if you are a fan of Nickelback you cannot like this, it is that bad. This album is pathetic and should not be bought by anyone!

HHHHHHH

Nickelback Here and Now

Nickelback
Here and Now