Nickelback Sings for All the Wrong Reasons

Despite selling more than 17 million copies of their previous three albums, Nickelback can’t get no respect. Corey Taylor, the lead vocalist for death-metal band Slipknot, publicly dissed the band, as did Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. Taylor did call them later to apologize but managed only to rub it in. (At least according to Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.)

These rockers’ beef? Nickelback is a sellout. Kroeger and Co. don’t write deep, metaphorical lyrics. They write stuff that appeals to their core audience: blue-collar, beer-drinking, fist-pumping guys and gals whose favorite part of a rock show is the explosions—during and afterwards. Stuff like, “It’s just a little hard to leave/When you’re going down on me.” That’s from the song “Fight for All the Wrong Reasons” on their newest album, All the Right Reasons.

Now, I'm no Slipknot fan, but if being a sellout means you write lyrics like that, then maybe Corey Taylor's got a point.

Why Go Deep When You Can Stay Shallow?
Kroeger, of course, does his share of dissing back. “I think most songwriters are afraid to tell people what they’re really thinking,” he told The Vancouver Sun. “They hide behind metaphors and deeper meanings. But all you’re really doing is leaving people wondering what the h--- your song is about.”

There’s no danger of that with Nickelback. Just listen to the lyrics. They’re about sex, sex, jealousy, vengeance and, um, sex. They do manage a bit of irony in “Rock Star,” which lampoons rock ‘n’ roll fantasies, but it's quickly back to the base when it becomes apparent those fantasies involve, well, sex: “I’ll need a credit card that’s got no limit/And a big black jet with a bedroom in it/Gonna join the mile high club/At thirty-seven thousand feet.”

“It’s hard to steer when you’re breathing in my ear," the guys rock on "Animals." "I got both hands on the wheel while you got both hands on my gear/ ... Your mom don’t know that you were missing/She’d be p---ed if she could see the parts of you that I’ve been kissing.”

A Penny for Your Thoughts
The most interesting song on the album—thematically, at least—is “Side of a Bullet.” It’s a tribute to “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, formerly of the heavy metal band Pantera. Kroeger idolized Pantera, and he was obviously affected when Dimebag was shot to death in December 2004 by a deranged fan. Lyrically, Kroeger ponders what could bring someone to such an act: “How could you take his life away?/How could you be so full of hate?” But he then engages in his own bit of hatred with a vengeance fantasy: “I cried alone/And scratched your name/On the side of a bullet.” (The gunman was in fact killed by police.)

The song includes a guitar solo using Dimebag’s rehearsal outtakes, provided to Nickelback by Dimebag’s brother. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top also lends a musical hand with a bit of delta-blues, slide-guitar sizzle on “Follow You Home,” a welcome relief from the band’s normal bass-heavy, crunching-power-chord sound. It’s about the only relief, though. Musically, this album is pretty much the same Nickelback as three albums ago. The only difference is that drummer Ryan Vikedal left the band (he claims he was forced out), and Daniel Adair, formerly of 3 Doors Down, brings a new aggressiveness to attacking the ‘skins.

Don’t Be Fooled
All the Right Reasons rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart upon its release, with the first single, “Photograph,” hanging around No. 2 on the singles chart. While the song contains some questionable glorification of high school rebelliousness, it is one of the more innocuous cuts on the album.

Anyone buying this album based on that tune, however, is in for a rude surprise. The rest of the songs are adolescent fantasies as lived by guys with a lot of money and no one around to say “no.” And that, in the end, deserves no respect.