CD Review- Nickelback: The Long Road

I'm back once again with a new feature for SIT. I've listened to Nickelback's new CD a couple times, and I think I'm ready to give my personal opinion. Even though this is just a blog, it seems to be a good place for a music review, so I'll switch into "critic" mode at this point. Enjoy. (Warning: Review references song titles which may be offensive to some readers)

If you're listening to "The Long Road" and you hear a faint sucking sound in the background, that's Nickelback's other records in comparison to this one. I'm not saying the others aren't good, but the new one frickin' rocks! NB has finally decided to put a little more power behind their music, and the result sounds a lot like Theory of a Deadman meets Hoobastank.

The musical quality of this CD is my favorite part, if you haven't figured it out yet. There's a lot more heavy stuff on here than on "Silver Side Up." The 2 minute long opener, "Flat on the Floor," sets the tone for the rest of the CD by taking listeners back to NB's "Curb" days with an almost punk tempo and crunchy guitar work by Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake. Other heavy selections include "Because of You," "Another Hole in the Head," a cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright (for Fighting)," and "Yanking Out My...(I'm assuming the word "heart" would follow this ellipsis)."

Of course, it wouldn't be Nickelback without a couple of power ballads to satisfy fans of "How You Remind Me," and they pull this off with songs like "Do this Anymore," "Someday," and "Feelin' Way too Damn Good." I'm pretty sure the latter uses the same guitar riff as Denis Leary's "Asshole," but it sounds better here than when a drunken comedian is yodeling over it.

In addition to the heavier guitars, Ryan Vikedal gives his drums a serious workout this time around. He even breaks out a double bass near the end of "Flat on the Floor." Being a drummer myself, I always look for good music that I can "air drum" to (which looks really stupid but is still fun), and many of these songs provide that opportunity, especially "Yanking Out My..." Despite the boost in guitar sound, the songs don't lose the melodic quality that makes NB stand out among many other bands. They still manage to pull off some good guitar solos, and each song has its own personality.

The lyrics on this CD are in a slightly different style than before, although Chad still seems too concerned about relationships. On songs like "Feelin' Way too Damn Good," "Figured You Out," and "Learn the Hard Way," you find out a little more about the singer's sex life than you really want to know, although it seems like a couple of these are meant to be sarcastic and/or ironic. Also, Kroeger made the smart decision of not writing any songs about marijuana like he did on "The State," so drug-free dudes like myself can still enjoy most of it with the exceptions being the stuff I mentioned above.

Chad seems to have avoided the traps of "pop" style lyrics overall, although "Believe it or Not" tries a little too hard to connect with people. A song with an interesting social message is "Throw Yourself Away," which is about the moderately publicized incident in which a girl delivered a baby in the bathroom at her high school prom and threw it in the trash.

In my opinion, this CD is a great follow-up to "Silver Side Up," and it seems like Nickelback has finally found a way to combine the grunge influences of "Curb" and the pop influences of SSU without getting trapped in the middle like they did on "The State (I really don't like that CD)." I'd recommend this to people who enjoyed songs like "Too Bad" and "Just For" on the last CD. If you're looking for more twangy, acoustic style stuff, you may want to look elsewhere. "Should've Listened" and "Someday" may satisfy you, but this CD is more of a hard rocker than anything else.

So, do you want to go out and buy it now? Do ya? Come on, you know you want to! Wait, I don't care if you buy it. Never mind. I think that's all I'm going to post for the time being. I've got some work to do later. As soon as I come up with some more interesting content, I'll blogify it and make it available for the one person who will ever read this besides me. I know you're out there somewhere...somewhere...where...where......that was an echo, in case you couldn't tell. Bye for now.