Nickelback's Debut into Inhumanity: Curb

NICKELBACK: CURB

SCORE: 59/100 - 5.9

Now this is about as Canadian as it gets.

This album is an interesting one for a multitude of reasons, from a glaringly controversial remastering and legal troubles, to the exclusivity to Canada (all while being recorded in Richmond), Nickelback showcases why the band gets a bad reputation. Some of their later projects starting with their third album, 'Silver Side Up' are highly enjoyable - but 'Curb' is dull, murky, and full of grunge-wannabe style that is enough to make it nearly grating. 

'Curb' does what a majority of post-grunge artists do, with Puddle of Mudd being a good comparison for the vocal performances in particular. Even Chad Kroeger went through a phase of trying too hard to sound like he was fronting either a Nirvana or Stone Temple Pilots cover band, and his vocal work is so beyond comprehension here in a way that drives the album down a very significant amount - although it isn't a terrible album, it really shows that this was their debut. 

And it goes to show that this album got the band nowhere close to where they ended up. Their second album was even released without a label following this one being released as a Canada-exclusive under FACTOR records in 1996 before being re-released by Roadrunner after their signing and mainstream success with the label. 

It's grunge that drags on without going almost anywhere, and the roots of the title track make the original artwork feel so glaringly inconsiderate, meaning that it makes all the sense in the world why Roadrunner changed it for the reissue, and why the original cover was lost to only certain sources. 

A friend from Kroeger's teenage years named Kirby had been involved in a severe car accident - serving the basis for the title track, 'Curb' and the "aesthetics" for the album. And although the title track is one of the strongest in terms of hook and chorus (as well as overall structure and melody, this is one they got right), how inconsiderate it feels is utterly shocking, with Kroeger himself speaking on it here (CONTENT WARNING FOR SENSITIVE MATERIAL ON A CAR ACCIDENT/REAL EVENTS): 

"He came over a hill in the middle of nowhere on a dirt gravel road and had a head-on collision with a car. He stumbled out of the car bleeding and bashed up pretty bad, and he opened up the car, and it's his girlfriend. She snuck out at the same time, was going to see him and he killed her on the back of a dirt road. I tried to imagine what they could possibly feel like, and that's where that song comes from." [Wikipedia] - knowing this makes the bands approach feel incredibly cheap and outright disgusting, and it's absolutely inhumane thinking of how Kroeger went about this situation; especially going as far as making the albums cover art a photo of a car wreck. 

The poor marketing of the band alongside a style that feels like a ripoff of every other band in the genre, it's no wonder to see why this album didn't spawn any hits. There are some moments of clarity on 'Curb' that show some succession and potential for the band, but it's clear that they hadn't quite unlocked it yet.