Definitely at the forefront of the Nu-Metal crowd, Nickelback is a consistent as they come for quality commercial modern rock. Produced by the legendary Mutt Lange, Dark Horse of course, SOUNDS flawless. Ironically, Nickelback is on the short list of bands that really didn't need his help. (The last one sounded near perfect too.) Despite being a great record, I'm afraid this one is actually a step back from their previous effort. The songs are still good. (I especially love track 9 -- S.E.X. It has a great riff and you couldn't pick a more sincere sentiment.) There are two or three other knock out songs too, but the problem with this cd is the ballads. Nickelback has been including a couple ballads on each album. On the last one, Far Away was one of the standouts of the cd. Unfortunately this time, the ballads just fall completely flat. They are perfectly executed, but the lyrics and the melodies are just tired and predictable. They really sound like Def Leppard leftovers. I don't know if that's Mutt's influence or just a coincidence, but either way, there are two of them and they really bring down the quality of the cd as a whole. Honestly that's a small complaint now that it's so easy to skip tracks, but the fact is, they raised the bar pretty high last time and I don't think they quite cleared it. That being said, this is still a fantastic cd by one of the best of the new generation bands around. It will still probably end up being one of the better cds of the year. If you enjoy great high quality party rock, it doesn't get much better than this. --
Scott