Review Summary: Let me improvise this 3rd review of All the Right Reasons in the same day. It's not the worst thing ever, really
So two other people today decided to write a review for this album, and I guess that's possessed me to improvise my thoughts on this album because it's not really the worst thing ever. It's definitely an improvement on "Silver Side Up", for example, which isn't difficult because that album is pretty much just one song repeated 10 times in a row.
But, hey, I'll admit it. There's some good stuff on here.
"Photograph" is the "All Star" of the 2000s. It's just... a meme. There's so much meme material in that song and video. I love how obvious and grating the auto-tune is on Chad's vocals. Yet the song itself is actually somewhat decent. You can poke at how the lyrics are awkward and "oh Joey's head haha that's so bad" but that lends itself to the personality of the song. Yeah, the production is really bland (like pretty much all the cuts on here), but it isn't really irritating.
I think the first two songs are actually two of the best on the entire album. "Follow You Home" kicks off with drummer Daniel Adair going HARD on the drums, like... not only is he using one foot to play the bass drum in the beginning, but wow, wow wow wow he's using TWO! I mean, it's quite impressive. If he was actually using one foot, that'd be amazing, but it's Nickelback, so he's probably using two. But it still sounds pretty cool. Irony aside, "Fight for All the Wrong Reasons" is catchy as all hell and really fun to listen to.
"Savin' Me" has the same bland production that pretty much embodies Nickelback's entire career, but it's catchy. I really like "Next Contestant" for some reason. It's really, really creepy... but it's good, y'know? It's like... a good song. It's good. "If Everyone Cared" is total garbage, though. "If Everyone Cared" like maybe if YOU cared to write a good song Chad Kroeger then I wouldn't be complaining but these lyrics are dumb by your standards. Maybe if everyone cared the world would actually be worse because people would care enough to be even more evil or something.
But the thing is... Nickelback's hits are meant to be something you can just play in the background on the radio and literally offend no one with. Chad Kroeger is a marketing genius and he knows this. Nickelback is Stock Music: The Band. Just remember that "Sweet Victory" was originally stock music, but that it has the real possibility of being played at the S*per B*wl. Yeah, sure, maybe "Sweet Victory" is better than anything on All the Right Reasons but it's all stock music nonetheless. Sure, the deeper cuts on here are a bit more risque, but Nickelback has already hooked those people in. They already loved "Rockstar" so maybe they'll be fine with hearing "Animals".
All I can say is... at least it's not Train.
