Review: Nickelback - Dark Horse

Chances are not many folks are going to take the time to review the new album from Nickelback and will instead just give it a categorical thrashing. So when the album leaked earlier this week I allowed my curiosity (and yes, my casual fandom) to get the better of me and I grabbed a copy of Dark Horse , the band's sixth record.

Produced by Mutt Lange, Dark Horse is in many ways a far cry from the band's 2005 monster All the Right Reasons . The tone is nastier, slightly more reminiscent of the band's breakthrough Silver Side Up . Leadoff track "Something In Your Mouth" is a stripper anthem a la Buckcherry's "Crazy Bitch" that's about as raunchy as the title suggests. The band goes even more balls-out on "Burn it to the Ground", a riot-inducing track that would make even Rage Against the Machine proud. On top of those is the album highlight "Next Go Round", which takes the hair-metal influence the band failed to get right on the last record ("Animals", anyone?) and puts a shotgun to its head. Let it be known here that the common complaint that Nickelback lacks spine is irrelevant. But Nickelback (and Mutt Lange's) greatest success here is getting Chad Kroeger to remove the pole from his ass. For the first time it sounds like Nickelback are actually having fun with these songs. Few moments here feel forced, and where Reasons album closer "Rockstar" quickly became the biggest joke in rock music this decade, this time around "This Afternoon" has a low-key, everyman quality to it that lends itself better to a drunken singalong.

That said, the Candian quartet is still very much interested in getting people to hear the music, hence the smattering of radio-friendly cuts here. "I'd Come For You" has some glaring comparisons to Mutt Lange's last production effort, Shania Twain's Up! . First single "Gotta Be Somebody" will rear its head once more in time for prom season, and Tim McGraw probably deserves a writing credit on "If Today Was Your Last Day" (the lyrics positively wreak of "Live Like You Were Dying"). But even these songs are nothing like the recycled tuneage of All The Right Reasons or the stinker that was The Long Road .

In spite of its successes, you can't help but remember once in awhile that this is indeed still a Nickelback record. The chorus to "S.E.X" is a takeoff of an old joke that every college frat boy has heard or told a thousand times "Sex is always the answer / It's never a question / 'Cause the answer's yes". Groan. Likewise "Never Gonna Be Alone" is a straightforward, boring affair that sounds like it was piecemealed together from "If Today Was Your Last Day" and "Gotta Be Somebody". And overall it just feels a bit too polished. Lange's production is good on the singles, but a bit overdone on the real rockers on the album. It kind of feels like a college dorm that got febrezed a few dozen times before the parents came over. It's clearly dirty and raw, but there's a layer of cleanliness designed to distract you from that. Ultimately it's that distraction that takes away from some of Nickelback's best work to date.

On Dark Horse take an incremental step forward from their past angst-ridden melodramas. It's a very small babystep and the band is still in their comfort zone, but listeners should take their victories where they come. That said, in a year where Coldplay grew up and filled out, Kanye West is channeling 60's soul, and Guns N' Roses are putting a steel toed boot to rock & roll's neck, Nickelback's growth is coming up just a tad bit short.

Final Score : 6.5/10

Nickelback - Burn It To The Ground


Back later with a look at the new Kanye West material and hopefully a look at the newly-leaked David Cook record.

==TJ==