Few, if any, contemporary music acts are more divisive than Nickelback. Finding someone — anyone — who admits to liking the Canadian rock quartet led by Chad Kroeger is more challenging than locating a Hasidic Jew in Abdul El-Sayed’s inner circle. Yet they have sold more than 50 million albums in their career. So somebody must like them. Actually, a lot of somebodies.
Anyway, the band that everyone, except their plethora of fans, loves to hate has released their first album in four years. “Everything Under the Sun” is two things: definitely a Nickelback album, bearing all the band’s signature elements of riff-heavy bordering on chainsaw rock roughness, and also highly melodic along with surprisingly diverse.
The album leads off with its heaviest rocker titled “Rattle the Cage,” a lyrical allusion to sword-and-sorcery tales that varies from the band’s usual topics, namely sex, breaking or broken relationships, and nostalgia.
This newfound lyrical bent continues with “Bones for the Crows.” Although it is difficult to envision Nickelback gigging at the local Renaissance Faire, it makes for a nice change of pace from the band’s aforementioned usual source materials.
While the remainder of the album rocks, the overall tenor is a touch more subdued than what one normally associates with Nickelback. This is not surprising; Kroeger will be 52 next month (November 2026) and presumably has mellowed at least a bit over the years. There are no mushy slopfests or plethora of sickly-sweet power ballads, but there are eminently listenable moments for those uninclined toward the harder side of things. A solid example of this is the upbeat “I Already Know,” which discusses a burgeoning relationship that, despite its newness, still feels familiar.
Feels like the whole room disappeared
In no time, it's just us standing here
Your face, just like déjà vu
Cliché, but I think I'm in love with you
Did something bring us here tonight? (Another time, another try)
Were we lovers in another life? (We'll never know, but here we go)
It's like knowin' every house up and down your street
Every sidewalk crack underneath your feet
When all your best friends were as thick as thieves
And you promised to each other that you'd never leave
Same good times, same dumb jokes
Same dumb lines every New Year's toast
And standing here with you is hitting close to home
Are you somehow someone I already know?
My favorite track on the album is “If I Don’t Go,” a medium-heat rocker in which Kroeger gets his message across about needing to leave a dead-end town without lyrically stretching beyond his meat-and-potatoes, earthy approach (language warning).
The album's production, a collaboration between longtime associate Chris Baseboard, is muscular yet clean. There are multiple textures in the quieter moments, while the rockers are thunderous yet clean. Time has taken enough of the razored gravel out of Chad Kroeger’s voice that it is no longer an exhausting listen, although it can still get to be a bit much after prolonged exposure. It’s definitely an acquired taste kind of scenario.
To say that Nickelback is not everyone’s cup of tea is an understatement of Herculean proportions. And that’s fine. They are not the second coming of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. They have never claimed to be. Nickelback is a working-class band that knows its strengths and sticks to them with occasional excursions into realms not normally associated with the quartet. If you like Nickelback, you’ll most likely love “Everything Under the Sun.” If you don’t, do yourself a favor and give it a listen anyway. You might surprise yourself by enjoying it.