Spring Break
Nickelback's 'Dark Horse' album heavy on PG-13 sleaze
Caity Cudworth
Issue date: 1/28/09 Section: Entertainment
01/28/09 - Nickelback has long trafficked in forgettable radio-friendly singles and the group's latest offering, "Dark Horse," delivers more of the same slick grunge-lite.
But this time around they're taking it up a notch: chock full of tracks about strippers, drugs, hookers, and the excessive consumption of booze. "Dark Horse" is basically Top 40 roofie-rock and really, by the end of the album it starts to feel like Nickelback is overcompensating for something.
On the other hand, at least it's catchy Top 40 roofie-rock. So I guess that's one redeeming quality.
These winsome little ditties about having sex in parking lots, strip clubs, dead drug addicts, and call girls have track titles that range from the fairly straightforward "S.E.X." to uh, the slightly more coy, "Something in Your Mouth."
"Something in Your Mouth," notably, is probably one of the skeeviest song titles maybe in the history of song titles. If there was even a shred of irony there it would be hilarious, because the title alone is almost Spinal Tap worthy.
Alas, however, lead singer Chad Kroeger is for real.
"You're so much cooler when you never pull it out," Kroeger croons to a g-string clad stripper, "cause you look so much cuter with something in your mouth."
Classy stuff indeed. Kroeger's muse is probably liquored up in the back of a strip joint counting a crumpled wad of singles.
To be fair, it's not all sketchy escapades and drug binges. There are also a couple impossibly nondescript ballads thrown in there, because Chad Kroeger is sentimental like that.
"Gotta Be Somebody" sets shivering bass against echoing vocals. This, you see, is musical shorthand for "loneliness" …Because even Kroeger's millions of dollars and high-cost hookers can't make up for his lack of generic, featureless love. "Everyone wants to know they're not alone/ There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere/There's gotta be somebody for me out there," he sings. The originality there is mind-blowing.
But this time around they're taking it up a notch: chock full of tracks about strippers, drugs, hookers, and the excessive consumption of booze. "Dark Horse" is basically Top 40 roofie-rock and really, by the end of the album it starts to feel like Nickelback is overcompensating for something.
On the other hand, at least it's catchy Top 40 roofie-rock. So I guess that's one redeeming quality.
These winsome little ditties about having sex in parking lots, strip clubs, dead drug addicts, and call girls have track titles that range from the fairly straightforward "S.E.X." to uh, the slightly more coy, "Something in Your Mouth."
"Something in Your Mouth," notably, is probably one of the skeeviest song titles maybe in the history of song titles. If there was even a shred of irony there it would be hilarious, because the title alone is almost Spinal Tap worthy.
Alas, however, lead singer Chad Kroeger is for real.
"You're so much cooler when you never pull it out," Kroeger croons to a g-string clad stripper, "cause you look so much cuter with something in your mouth."
Classy stuff indeed. Kroeger's muse is probably liquored up in the back of a strip joint counting a crumpled wad of singles.
To be fair, it's not all sketchy escapades and drug binges. There are also a couple impossibly nondescript ballads thrown in there, because Chad Kroeger is sentimental like that.
"Gotta Be Somebody" sets shivering bass against echoing vocals. This, you see, is musical shorthand for "loneliness" …Because even Kroeger's millions of dollars and high-cost hookers can't make up for his lack of generic, featureless love. "Everyone wants to know they're not alone/ There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere/There's gotta be somebody for me out there," he sings. The originality there is mind-blowing.
