If you’ve ever thought, Man, I really love “1985,” by Bowling for Soup, but wish it was Chad Kroeger waxing poetic instead, then boy, do I have the song for you! The latest single from Canada’s least favorite butt-rock band is “These Days,” the spiritual successor to the megahit “Rockstar” and the sonic equivalent of listening to your dad’s childhood buddies talk about the so-called good ol’ days. In it, Kroeger gets nostalgic for his youth, naming cultural touchstones of the ’80s as if he were reading out the billboards on the side of the highway. Remember dialing *69? Or watching Nightmare on Elm Street? Or even just the band Guns N’ Roses?
With interjections that sound like the band is just scrolling through titles on their iPod (or, more appropriately, their Walkman) — “‘Ace of Spades,’ by Motörhead” is a lyric that has even less context in the song — it’s kind of sad to listen to. It feels as if you’re listening to a bastardized memory of a memory of a memory, so separated from the actual content that, to paraphrase another low-tier butt-rock band, everything becomes blurry. But perhaps it’s fitting for their latest album, Get Rollin’, which has a surf-inspired drawing of a beach van on the cover, another example of aesthetic hodgepodge from the band everybody loves to hate. But if you’re reading this because you are in fact a Nickelback apologist like myself, try “San Quentin,” the lead single from Get Rollin’. The riff-laden metal song may be the best-sounding Nickelback song in years — and no, that is not an oxymoron!
