I Guess it Wasn't Really Right

Everyone knows who Nickelback is; they exploded back in 2001 after How You Remind Me exploded onto radio and was played everywhere from football stadiums to bar mitzvahs to the point where they had those five word in our head, are we having fun yet (of course this is not to be confused with the five words Bon Jovi swore to us). Well I recently got those five words out of my head just in time for the release of their latest album, All the Right Reasons.

By now most people have heard the first single off the album, Photograph (no it’s not the Def Leppard song, nor is Animal the Def Leppard song either). The song is like a musical version of having your parents sit you down and force you to watch their photo log of their vacation that they didn’t bother to invite you on. Not necessarily what you want people to originally associate with your record. Luckily the most of the album isn’t as sappy as Photograph except for the depressingly sad (and I mean it in a bad way) Far Away or the tree hugging hippie sounding If Everyone Care. The last song, Rockstar and it’s weird pseudo-bluesy sound and so bad they are funny lyrics about the life of a rockstar are saved by the appearance of one of the bearded dudes from ZZ Top.

The band has never been known for any thought provoking lyrics, check out the uber-perverse Figured You Out from their last record, and their reputation won’t changed on All the Right Reasons. Follow You Home takes the “No Means Yes” philosophy to dating. Fight for All the Wrong Reasons take a page out of the Figured You Out lyric book with lines like, “It's just a little hard to leave when you're going down on me.” What girl wouldn’t be swept off her feet with a line like that?

Silly lyrics aside, the band does get down to rocking a little with the help of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on two tracks and the late Dimebag from Pantera on another. Bringing in a couple Americans to rock is a good idea from the band because Canadian rock about as good as American can play hockey. But really after listening to the album a couple times I really hope the Canadians stop importing horrible rock music (see also: Sum41 and Avril Lavigne) and go back to importing the best Canadian resources, comedians and beer. And thank goodness hockey is back, or at least I've heard.

Song to Download – Follow You Home

All the Right Reasons gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.