Review Summary: “I am not a leader of men…” Unfortunately that is painfully obvious now, but maybe they could have been…
Opening with some distorted guitars, “Breathe”, kicks off Nickelback’s
The State. It has a nice toe tapping rhythm and surprisingly good lyrics. In fact this is probably one of the best songs ever played by Nickelback. Chad gets off to a rough start at the beginning but manages to vocally pick up toward the end of the song.
The next song, “Cowboy Hat” thankfully manages to keep up with the pace set by “Breathe” musically. The lyrics are not that bad and the acoustic guitar is a nice touch. “Leader of Men” then comes out and steals the show. This is the best song on the album; it has some interesting lyrics that actually make me care about what Chad is singing about.
Unfortunately that’s where the really good music ends. The rest of the album fails to capture any attention and fails to leave any real lasting impressions. I mean you have an occasional good song that manages to get your head bobbing, like for example “Worthy to Say”, which has some nice guitar riffs and some solid singing by Kroeger.
“Old Enough” has a very interesting intro, and again a nice vocal performance; it even has a nice guitar solo, even if it’s not that long. Overall this is probably the best album Nickelback has ever come out with or will ever come out with. Which makes one wonder what happened to them? I’m not going to say they’re amazing in this album. I mean it’s slightly above average and I may be being a little too nice. But if they had kept going in this direction would we have a slightly above average rock band on our hands, instead of the mainstream rock disaster we have now?
Recomended Tracks
Worthy to Say
Breathe
Cowboy Hat
