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A band’s popularity peaks and fades. And should they happen to find themselves the subjects of ridicule, then that peaks and fades, too. But for Nickelback, the days of disdain are over. More pressingly, they need to re-evaluate: this eleventh album is their response to 2022’s Get Rollin’ becoming their first album this century to miss the US Top 10. And the Top 20.
Suitably shaken on their most recent dates last winter (festival headliners, lest we forget), they were playing just one Get Rollin’ song, but even when the going had become tricky previously (and Chasin’ Famous from the new album suggests some grudges are still held), Nickelback were never ones to turn.
Nickelback – Make Me Love You (Official Music Video) – YouTube
As a result, on an album where none of the 15 tracks reaches five minutes, they’ve both doubled down and upped their game. It might be daft lyrically (‘We dance through fire with unburnt skin,’ indeed), but the Chad Kroeger-written standout Bones For The Crows is Nickelback in excelsis: thunderous chorus, Kroeger’s life-or-death vocals, and an undertow of rough-hewn poppiness. It’s fabulous. What’s not to adore?
Rattle The Cage, with a sizzling guitar solo from Mötley Crüe’s John 5, and the bluesy Up To No Good run it close; both could be from any Nickelback album. And while Simple Song isn’t entirely misleadingly titled, there’s admirably little treading water, although curiously, what promised to be a dip into unfamiliar territory – Kroeger co-writing Make Me Love You with four country writers – isn’t that at all, it’s half-speed Nickelback.
Nickelback – Leave Me Behind (Official Music Video) – YouTube
They do, though, step out of their comfort zone with surprisingly stellar results. The genuinely tasteful Technicolor Steamboat begins with a twangy acoustic guitar solo, builds around some Laurel Canyon-style vocal harmonies and adds what sounds like sitar. Heard blind, you’d plump for it being the work of any of a hundred bands rather than Nickelback. It’s excellent. Meanwhile, for all its adolescent lyrics, Last Night Was Fun is built around a Stereophonics-style earworm and an almost indie production, while Bottled Dreams is surely ripe for a non-ironic reggae cover.
That they simultaneously look backwards and forwards so effectively suggests Nickelback’s Janus approach is probably the right thing to do in 2026. That’s more than enough to be going on with.
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