Here and Now

Seven albums into their multiplatinum career, Nickelback know where their bread is buttered: riffs that sound like someone dropped a chainsaw into a wood chipper propelled by swaggering rhythms for stripping and/or stomping (\"God almighty, look at that body,\" brays Chad Kroeger on \"Gotta Get Me Some\"). Yet *Here and Now* isn\'t without its twists: \"Lullaby\" is just that, a power ballad worthy of a summer blockbuster love story, and the single \"When We Stand Together\" swings with a power pop chorus that\'s hard to shake. Lest anyone think our heroes have gone soft, \"Midnight Queen\" delivers the hard rock goods.

It’s a testament to Nickelback’s unshakeable prominence in pop culture that it is commonly seen (along with Entourage and Miller Lite commercials) as a figurehead of lowest-common-denominator douchebaggery. The truth is that there are bands far worse than Nickelback on modern-rock radio right now. (If you’ve never…

Left to their own devices on Here and Now, Nickelback have done the unthinkable: they’ve embraced who they are.

Say what you will about NICKELBACK as played-to-death rock radio merchants or tried and true creators of strip club staples, but they've never forgotten how to rock hard and write a hook. Setting aside the slew of admittedly catchy, though often irksomely clichéd songs (and worsened by radio inundat...