Review NICKELBACK ‘Get Rollin”

Nickelback is as successful as they are controversial. But if you sell more than 10 million records in the USA, as with ‘All the Right Reasons’, you seem to be doing something right.

These days the four Canadians have with ‘Get Rollin” a new album in the starting blocks and the tenth studio longplayer starts amazingly rocking. ‘San Quentin’ pops out of the speakers with down-tuned guitar riffs and a powerful beat, sounding different than much of the quartet’s MTV-ready fare. This start surprises positively and makes appetite for more.

It continues with the thumping ‘Skinny Little Missy’ and even if the typical Nickelback trademarks are present, the song in its entirety seems harder than expected. However, also this time Nickelback want to enter the charts again, as otherwise the acoustic tearjerker ‘Those Days’ can’t be explained. Actually, it’s a pity that the very pleasant start is put into perspective with such a standard song.

The southern rock-influenced ‘High Time’ is no highlight, but has an easy-going swing and a positive vibe.

With ‘Vegas Bomb’ the four again explore the positive power of a harder riff before Nickelback fall back into musical no man’s land with ‘Tidal Wave’. If a mainstream anthem, then rather songs like ‘Steel Still Rusts’ and ‘Standing in the Dark’. The latter is a grooving rock song with good hooks, which is on the other hand not new musical territory, but still pleasing.

Even if the start nurtures the hope for harder songs, ‘Get Rollin” is in its entirety a typical Nickelback album. Songs for the masses is what Nickelback’s tenth studio album offers and since the Canadians remain true to their style nothing will change in the status quo. Fans of the band will once again idolize the group, and those who have not enjoyed Nickelback’s sound so far will not change their minds after listening to ‘Get Rollin”. Nevertheless, the hope remains that in the future the guys will maybe include more songs like ‘San Quentin’ in their repertoire.