I will call myself a music lover. I appreciate all music. Classical, jazz, rock, country, and I’ve even got some Top 40 and Rap on my ipod. My friends come to me for musical suggestions.
If there is a guilty pleasure for me, then it is Nickelback.
ROLL YOUR EYES NOW and INSERT JOKE OF YOUR CHOICE.
I first saw Nickelback @ an Uptown Festival around 2000. I was actually waiting for Parliment Funkadelic to come on 3 hours later and since I wasn’t a Widespread Panic fan, we just hung out the stage and watched the bands on it. Jack and Kristen were even on site doing a broadcast. It was before I became “The Rock Goddess.” Nickelback played to about 50 people. 15 probably cared about them & the other 35 were there working or just waiting for the next band. My friend and I were impressed with them. They just rocked out a set for the 15 people that care about them and played like 50,000 people were there. A few weeks later, I picked up The State on CD. I really liked it so I went through a Canadian music site and picked up Curb and through Ebay and grabbed Hesher. Roughly 6-8 months later, Nickelback played with Three Doors Down at Tremont and the show was sold out.
Fast foward to now and Nickelback is one of the most hated yet loved bands around. Fans of their music come out in droves. People who don’t like them don’t want their music played at sporting games, on the radio, and so on.
Whatever it is that makes people love or hate Nickelback, the have found the formula on how to write a hit song.
My own friends will more than likely disown me after this post, but if they can have Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, etc as their guilty pleasure, then I can have Nickelback as mine but I can’t even say it’s guilty.
I really do like their music. The ones that aren’t played on the radio like “Side of a Bullet” from All the Right Reasons written for Dimebag Darrell. The guitar is loud, crunchy, and the song is an angry rant about revenge. The State was my favorite Nickelback CD until Here and Now. This CD has great bass riffs, dirty guitars, and you know what, the band just knows how to write a f**king catchy song.
And I’m not going to lie, any song about drinking (“Bottoms Up”) is good for me. Jimmy Buffett makes a liviing off of it. Trust me, I know. I own EVERY SINGLE BUFFETT ALBUM. Hell, even country stars Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band are trying to makei their marks as artists with drinking songs.
So here’s my review of Here and Now:
1. This Means War
I love the bass in this song. I am a drum and bass girl. It’s usually the first thing I notice and then the lyrics. It made it to my “Fk Off” playlist. My favorite song on the CD.
2. Bottoms Up
Drinking song. It’s on my drinking playlist.
3. When We Stand Together
Easily, an anthem of the human race joining together to fight for something better. (Yes, even if it means banning together to fight against Nickelback)
4. Midnight Queen
Besides the sick bass in this song, I am instantly thrown back back to the dirty rock lyrics of the glam hair metal days. Double entendre galore! It’s also damn catchy. Rock hit.
5. Gotta Get Me Some
A future stripper song. Great bass. Drinking, sex, and hey guess what, it’s got Chad’s signature chorus. This will be a rock hit.
6. Lullaby
Slow song. Lyrically, I like this song. A song about not giving up. I am putting this on my nieces playlist. Songs I would dedicate to them for when they feel like there is no one around.
7. Kiss It Goodbye
Another signature song from Nickelback. I dig the chorus, the bass, and the guitar. I like the lyrics “East coast digs the cocaine. West coast marijuana. Don’t be surprised when you swallow all your pride It’s tough to see through bullst, when it’s up above your eyes.”
8. Trying Not to Love You
Ballad. Many a fool will play this at their wedding or when they are trying to get the one back. I’m not a fan of Nickelback’s ballads.
9. Holding on to Heaven
This might not be a ballad but this is along the vein of a Someday feel.
10. Everything I Wanna Do
I’m not a fan of this song. It’s a combo of some of the above. Almost a filler song of left over parts of the other songs that were decent. I also cannot take any song that includes “K-I-S-S-I-N-G, sitting in a tree” serious. Soulja Boy(sp?) supposedly helped write this song.
11. Don’t Ever Let It End
This song made me think of “Something Like That” by Tim McGraw the way the story unfolds. Top 40 will eat this song up.