Nickelback

When mook rock’s prime minister, Fred Durst, vacated his seat and took up residence in Barelyhasbeenville, the Dude contingent was minus a mouthpiece — and, like, completely bummed, bro. No worries. Now another misogynistic miscreant has happily assumed the role of pied piper. Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger likes to drink, fuck, fight and, well, wash-rinse-repeat. All the Right Reasons contains plenty of the act’s trademark high-octane, chest-pounding anthems. But this time around, Kroeger and company also drip small doses of estrogen into the proceedings, balancing knuckle-draggers such as “Fight for All the Wrong Reasons” (which boasts the edifying couplet “It’s just a little hard to leave/When you’re going down on me”) and “Animals” (which deals with the difficulty of driving when your junk is being manhandled) with the wistful nostalgia of “Photograph” and pappy power ballads like “Far Away” and “If Everyone Cared.” Reason‘s most odious cut, though, is its most earnest: “Side of a Bullet,” an elegy to Dimebag Darrell. Although Dimebag and Kroeger were reportedly friends, the track has all the believability of Durst eulogizing Kurt Cobain. Makes you want to break some shit.