Stephen
'Here and Now' marks the seventh release of Nickelback and looks like they try to calm the music down and introduced more midtempo and ballads, probably to help them gain more new listeners through the radio and media. I've heard a friend said that he read a horrendous report on Classic Rock Magazine, stating this album a disastrous 20% rating, while I don't crazily think that way, this album sure has too many flaws.
A wall divided this album by two obvious sides and I call the first side their best, and the second one is their trash. 'When We Stand Together' is a great acoustical / commercial tune; 'Lullaby' and 'Trying Not To Love You' are two awesome ballads; and they're smart enough to save the best song for the last. 'Don't Ever Let it End' has the best chorus here and overall the song is the peak of this album.
Now, aside from 'Bottoms Up' which I think is still pretty good, the rest are average to horrible, like 'Midnight Queen', 'Gotta Get Me Some', or 'Everything I Wanna Do', I recommend don't even bother at all. Despite that fact, I concur that Nickelback should deserve more appreciation especially from the 80s rock community because I can hear the influence since 'Dark Horse', which is no coincidence was produced by Mutt Lange, a man from that decade.
This is an average modern hard rock album and if you prefer only to have couple of killers, try those tracks I mentioned before and forget the rest, but if you can find it for a $1 or $2 at your nearest pawn shop, this isn't utterly bad like some has told. 60%