Nickelback wastes absolutely no time busting out of the gates on their sixth studio album, Dark Horse.
They waste absolutely no time at all, for better or for worse.
A quick ‘n’ dirty guitar riff begins the opener, the unveiled ode to sex titled “Something In Your Mouth.” Singer Chad Kroeger ratchets up the grating rasp in his voice to pseudo-rap to his audience about the “pretty little lady in the pretty pink thong/ Every sugar daddy hittin’ on her all night long.”
Kroeger continues to fire up feminists in the chorus: “You’re so much cooler when you never pull it out,” he sings, “cause you look so much cuter with something in your mouth.” He’s referring to a thumb, of course, but that doesn’t deny the listener the enveloping layer of grime when he hears the lyric.
The graphic trysts of Kroeger periodically rear their heads throughout the album: On the unironically titled “S.E.X.,” for instance, he tells a lucky lady how “I’m loving what you wanna wear/ I wonder what’s up under there/ Wonder if I’ll ever have it under my tongue.” Romantic, indeed.
Interestingly, Kroeger’s lyrics often jump between overtly sexual and overtly personal from song to song, and the music follows suit. Whereas the carnal anthems offer distorted, chugging guitar riffs underneath Kroeger’s characteristic yowl, the power ballads slide by with acoustic guitars (which, in the world of Nickelback, translates to heartfelt), Kroeger’s characteristic yowl and lyrics with all the emotional impact of Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s “We’ve Got To Do Something.”
“If you ever feel like letting go/ I won’t let you fall,” Kroeger rasps on “Never Gonna Be Alone.” Interesting point, considering a few songs later he describes how “Sex is always the answer/ It’s never the question/ ‘Cause the answer’s yes.”
Lyrical failings and identity crises aside, you still can’t fault Nickelback for its craftsmanship – these guys can compose a mainstream hit better than most songwriters out there.
The Buzz Cuts-ready ballad “Never Gonna Be Alone” proves this handily – the transition from verse to chorus, which pauses the music momentarily to highlight Kroeger’s voice reaching for the stars, hits at just more than a half minute in. The band pins the verse/chorus convention down to a science, throwing in an instrumental bridge here and there to vary the song structure just enough to get by.
The calculated composition mirrors the intensely overproduced nature of the songs. Every track shines and sparkles – even the ones with the dirtiest, chunkiest guitar riffs. They also all bring Kroeger’s voice way into the front of the mix, and that’s where the craftsmanship and solid instrumentation (notably on one or two solid guitar solos) becomes completely moot.
The singer has a habit of allowing his vocals to jump into the track at the most unsettling moment – as soon as the listener comfortably settles into an instrumental melody, Kroeger’s yell quickly annihilates the mood of the song. And because his voice is pushed so far into the forefront, the lyrics take precedence over the musicianship.
The music itself is handled competently. But, as mentioned, the ability of the band to play its instruments isn’t the problem.
Kroeger’s desire to just chill, man, manifests itself on the finale, “This Afternoon,” which is literally about smoking weed, drinking beer and doing absolutely nothing. In a moment of transcendent brilliance, Kroeger says “The landlord says I should buy a tent/ But he can kiss my ass ’cause I paid my rent.” In a similar moment, on the drunken anthem “Burn It To The Ground,” he carelessly rhymes “that s—” with “bat s—.”
Therefore, it makes it that much more fascinating when Kroeger attempts go the tears-in-the-eye route. Under a backing of perfectly fine musicianship from his bandmates, the singer goes on, always transparently, about the life of a friend spiraling out of control or reconciliation with a lover.
Kroeger attempts to say a lot, but in the end, it becomes apparent he doesn’t have much of a message to get across in the first place.
jwolper@umd.edu
RATING: 1 out of 5 stars
