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ARTIST: Nickelback
TITLE: Dark Horse
WEB DEBUT: Nov. 10, 2008
RELEASE DATE: Nov. 18, 2008
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The sixth album from seemingly unkillable Canadian act Nickelback is co-produced by countryman Mutt Lange, a fact that’s belied by the pre-grunge sheen over so much of it. It starts off with the “Crazy Bitch” rewrite “Something In Your Mouth” and gets downer and dirtier from there: The Intervention-ready “Just To Get High” sounds like post-Dr. Feelgood Motley Crue, right down to the lyrics about junkiedom; “Shakin’ Hands,” which is about a woman who’s a gold-digger, a stripper, and a whore, recalls Poison’s “Fallen Angel,” only with a touch more misogyny. And then there’s the big ballad “Never Gonna Be Alone,” which could have just as easily been performed by longtime Lange pal Bryan Adams, and on which Chad Kroeger slips out of his post-grunge growl and into that “extra octave” territory mined by Def Leppard to great effect. There’s even a “silly outro” track–”This Afternoon,” which one could see as Nickelback’s attempt to answer the question, “What if there was a rock version of ‘Because I Got High,’ only without Afroman and with lots of guitar strumming?”
THE BEST TRACK: It’s gotta be “Gotta Be Somebody,” on which Kroeger dispenses with the sort of icky bro-dom that’s going to ensure this album sells as many copies as an album can in late 2008 and indulges in some Alphaville-biting “Up With People” schtick.
I wonder if any major magazine (Rolling Stone) will begrudgingly give this album a featured review (even if they’re going to trash it)
@2ironic4u: I’ll bet they give it a mild rave. RS’s M.O. is to get on board the train once they’ve realized they can’t kill something off.
Hell, they’re big enough at this point that they’ll get reviewed in People, maybe even Time.
Nickelback’s TIME cover line:
IS ROCK IRRELEVANT?
I was working out just now and the dude at the gym put on some old Nickelback CD, and know what? It’s not bad for working out to. All ya’ll haters need to back off. Nickelback got me PUMPED, ya dig?
@LeBron: you take that back!
@Chris Molanphy: You’re right. They gave a somewhat featured review (included a photo) but put it at the very back of the review section. (G’N'R was the lead review, followed by the Killers, of course).