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Charlie’s Pick of the Week: Nickelback’s New Album, “Here and Now”

Some people aren’t into the whole Nickelback thing. People often call them “trash” or “disgraceful,” and group them with other despised radio-friendly rock bands like Creed and Daughtry.  I happen to like Nickelback—especially when they find a nice balance between pop-rock and grunge.

On “Here and Now,” the Canadian superstars return in top form.

The new album has a lot of booze-oriented party anthems (Bottoms Up, Everything I Wanna Do) and heavy riffs (Gotta Get Me Some, Midnight Queen), but it also has a lot of the familiar ballads that have previously earned them the top spot on the Billboard charts.  They have several new songs, notably “Lullaby,” that truly make an impression on you. “Lullaby” is also a great song to slow dance to with your loved one. They also have an amazing acoustic track called “Holding on to Heaven,” an incredibly catchy song about the lengths somebody will go to in order to keep the one they love by their side.

Although Nickelback generously decided to stream the album on iTunes before it was released, critics are mostly excited about the eclectic mix of songs. Juggling heavy metal and piano-fueled, inspirational ballads comes very easy to them; they care about sex, partying and booze just as much as they care about the world. That makes them sound superficial, but that’s just because they care about the staples of rock n’ roll with a deep passion, much like they’re concern for our great planet.

Nickelback aren’t like the Jonas Brothers or Justin Bieber, who guys say they hate and truly do hate. They aren’t like Megadeth or Slipknot, who most girls claim to produce “devil music.” Nickelback is the prime example of a band that people, both guys and girls, say they hate but like. Although people say that Nickelback, much like aforementioned bands Creed and Daughtry, is an old band that produces poppy rock n’ roll that is cheesy and unoriginal. I would fight back, but Nickelback’s track record speaks for itself: 6 Billboard Music Awards, 6 Grammy nominations, 4 straight chart-topping albums that spawned 7 chart-topping singles, and over fifty million albums sold. Lead songwriter Chad Kroeger is a genius because he knows exactly what people want and exactly how far he can go. On “Here and Now,” he turned out an incredibly racy album that’s packed with songs about getting drunk and doing it all without breaking any taboos, and with enough compassion and moral authority to grease its passage into the mainstream. Although they’re Canadian, they have us down.

Rejoice, North America. This is our world. Nickelback is back, and we’re all prepared and excited, whether we admit it or not.

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    LeoAug 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Nickelback has me hooked. This last cd helped me through some really bad times and I’m very appreciative. I even drove down to check them out in Atlantic city and I was not disappointed at all. I was really tired and felt out of my element but later on I knew that it was worth it. Thanks for if everyone cared, burn it to the ground, and especially lullaby and all the other songs that I am still rocking too year after year Nickelback. To me , when I can listen to songs repeatedly and not get bored means that there’s definitely some substance behind the song and not just a quick listen and then on to the next one. Once again, thank you do much Nickelback……….

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