Review Summary: There's other bands that are better to know, but I'm addicted to this lazy shitshow
I recently made a review of the Nickelback album known as “Dark Horse” I had a few decent things to say about it. For example, the instrumentation was damn good, despite its simplicity and that Chad Kroeger has a good voice. But its a BAD album. In an attempt to explain chad’s stupidity, I wrote it off as some sort of ***post, prank or joke. I truly believed that that was the truth.
I just listened to “Here and Now”. And it is beyond comprehension. I don’t know if its a joke, I don’t know if this was made for ironic purposes, half the time I can’t even tell Chad is saying when he is singing.
On the very first song this album is confusing. On an album that came out four years later than Dark Horse, the instrumentation and production hasn’t just taken a step back. It went for a ***ing jog, and got ran over by a truck before it could get back home. It’s very bad. Chad Kroeger has apparently given up on his singing career and has decided that growling is a better idea than sounding like a human being. Lyrically, it’s very obviously not a joke. Its stupid lyrics, are just some meaningless, nihilistic, party anthem. And as bas as this first song is, it may be the highlight of the album. After this is a barrage of equally horrid, putrid and painful tracks, that sound like they were written by a sixth grader who was trying to be as edgy as possible, while not being allowed to cuss.
But everyone who has ever heard a Nickelback song knows that the lyrics are ***. Thats basically a given at this point. If anything they have gotten worse in this album. (which is a feat) But the thing about this album that really makes me angry, is the musical aspect.
I’m a simple guy. I don’t give a crap about sub-par lyrics if the song sounds technically good. I gave Dark Horse a pass on the musical side. (“Something in Your Mouth” is a song off of Dark Horse that I destroyed the replay button on. It’s a musically perfect song.) But no. This album wouldn’t even let me have that. I can’t even write it off as an album with bad lyrics and decent instrumentals. The best songs on the album are the blatant ripoffs of their other songs. Musically, this album fails, with only the simplest of chord progressions and riffs so simple that I could figure out how to play most of them, and I don’t even play guitar. Nearly brain dead drumming (Which is a shame because they have a superb drummer), and mediocre bass serve to make this album worse as well. Chad Kroeger no longer sounds good in this album, he sounds like a microwaved toad. There is no aspect of this album that does a better job any any album that I’ve ever listened to in my life. And believe me- I like some pretty bad albums.
In fact, here’s a list of bad albums from various genres that are all infinitely better than this one that I like quite a lot: “Starbomb- Starbomb”, “Magic Mountain- Black Stone Cherry”, “Victorious- Wolfmother”, “Cherry Pie- Warrant”, “Blood- In this Moment”, “Life Turns Electric- Finger Eleven” and even “Every Man for Himself- Hoobastank”
I’ve heard multiple people refer to all of these albums as “Bad” or even “Awful”. So I’m not claiming to have superb taste in music. But the difference between these albums and “Here and Now” is that at least these artists are competent and know how to make an album that works as an album. Sadly, Here and Now can’t even do that. With contradictory ideas strewn out all throughout the album, making it feel jarring, disconnected, and disjointed.
I would mention some highlights of this album, but truly doesn’t have any that last for an entire song. I think the most hilariously ironic one would have to be “Kiss it Goodbye” which is likely unintentionally hilarious.
However I DO have at least one good thing to say about this album, and even this is a bit of a backhanded compliment, but the song “Midnight Queen” is fantastic. Obviously, it’s a Nickelback song, so it’s your standard “Cock Rock” affair, however this song manages to achieve some things that no other song on the album manages. Before I rant about this one song’s extreme high quality, I’m going to preface it by saying that it’s almost a 1:1 remake of “Devil’s Queen” By Black Stone Cherry. However, (and this is the ONLY time that I’ll probably ever say this) But Nickelback did it better. The song is fast paced, and bouncy, with easily some of the best vocal melodies on the album. The way the guitar cuts out of the verses, serves to make the chorus sound fantastic and hard hitting, with a frantic, chaotic riff driving it along. And when the second verse comes along, with some chugging guitar in the background, it is just as good, if not better sounding than the first verse. The bass in this song, is also quite good, giving the song a surprisingly good groove. The pre-chorus, is also very good, with the guitar building up, and it flows nicely into the chorus. One strategy that this band uses often, but uses to great effect here is quietly mixing Chad screaming into the song, in the moments leading up to the chorus, and slightly into it. This gives the song a nice flow, and makes it easy to listen too over and over. There's a very solid instrumental break, about half way through the song, and a very well played guitar solo nearing the end. This one song, is absolutely perfect, from every aspect except the actual lyrics, but I’ve already explained that I can completely overlook shitty lyrics. I listen to this song all the time, because it’s excellent. Perfect background music for doing stupid shit, and I can confirm that if I ever end up making any sort of action movie, this song will be in the soundtrack. I would 100% not recommend that ANYONE listens to this album, but I would passionately recommend this song, for the astoundingly good instrumentation. Also, whenever I try to for a mental image of what goes down in this song, I can't help but imagine that this "Midnight Queen" Looks and acts a lot like Pam from the TV series "Archer"
Overall, “Here and Now” fails as an album, whether or not it’s a joke, prank or other means of ***ing with someone. I can honestly say, (with no doubt in my mind) that this is the worst album I’ve heard in my life. It honestly has one redeeming quality and that’s “Midnight Queen”. So basically, listen to “Midnight Queen” and avoid the rest of it like the plague.
I recommended some similar sounding, vastly superior albums for you as well. So have fun with those.
