Nickelback – Everything Under the Sun

Anyone who has been using Nickelback as a punchline for years had better sit down for a moment. On “Everything Under the Sun”, the Canadians’ eleventh album, the band sounds rawer, more mature and considerably more confident than you might expect from a group that has been laughed at for so long. This is not an album by men who want to prove something. This is an album by men who know what they can do.

Nickelback hail from Hanna, Alberta, and have been around for over thirty years. Chad Kroeger, bassist Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake and drummer Daniel Adair grew into a band that fills stadiums, despite all the ridicule or perhaps precisely because of it. The documentary “Hate to Love: Nickelback” gave the band an almost likeable image, and the world tour surrounding 2022’s “Get Rollin'” was a considerable success. Now the group is moving from BMG to Virgin Music Group, and Kroeger produced the album alongside long-time collaborator Chris Baseford.

The opening track “Rattle the Cage”, featuring Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5, immediately sets the tone. Heavy riffs, a drummer going at it full throttle and Kroeger opening up his raw throat. It explodes like a door being kicked off its hinges. “Bones for the Crows” maintains that pace and shows that the band still knows how to lodge a hook in your head like a fishhook. In contrast, there is “Leave Me Behind”, a big power ballad that unashamedly seeks emotion, and “Make Me Love You”, which is more personal than we are used to from the band.

The influence of Nashville is striking. Country touches creep into the sound on several tracks, but the band remains true to itself. Nowhere does it sound like a pose. “Technicolor Steamboat” is an outlier that emerges from the band where you least expect it, and one track features a cameo by fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds. It is a little joke, but it works. The album closes with “Last Night Was Fun”, a title that almost feels like a wink at the band’s carefree years.

The fact that the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll of the past have largely disappeared gives the album a different hue. The lyrics deal with doubt, love, the passage of time and having to learn to live with your own choices. That suits the band better than you might think. Still, there is a caveat. Twelve tracks are a lot, and not every song has the same bite. A few ballads meander along as though they are walking unhurriedly towards the exit, and the slogans in the choruses are sometimes a little too easy.

But then again, anyone who holds that against a band with thirty years of experience forgets that craftsmanship is allowed to be just that: craftsmanship. “Everything Under the Sun” is a broad, noisy and sometimes surprisingly tender album that shows Nickelback has no intention of apologising any longer. The band turns up the volume, puts its hands in its pockets and looks you straight in the eye. If that is not enough, you can figure it out for yourself. (8/10) (Virgin Music Group)