Welcome to this edition of Album Insights! Every edition, we dive deep into an album, analysing the artist's lyrics, messages, and performances to uncover what makes it special.

This week, we'll be diving into Silver Side Up by Nickelback

The Album Cover | Source: iTunes

Artist Profile

A photo of the band, Nickelback | Source: Medium

Nickelback burst onto the post-grunge and hard rock scene during 1995, in Alberta, Canada, originally as a cover band called Village Idiot, when they first formed it was made up of the two brothers, Chad Kroeger, and Mike Kroeger, as well as their cousin Brandon Kroeger and Ryan Peake, after some time as the 'Village Idiot' they rebranded themselves to be Nickelback, in the Rolling Stone biography of the band, it is said that the name originates from the nickel in change that Mike Kroeger gave customers during his time working in a local Starbucks, frequently being reported to have said "Here's your nickel back". As a cover band, they focus predominantly on performing covers from bands such as Led Zeppelin as well as Metallica. However, in 1995, Chad Kroeger asked his stepfather to loan CA$4,000 to produce their first demo, and this was the start of Nickelback, with their first album releasing in 1996, called 'Curb'

The band is currently comprised of 4 members, 

• Chad Kroeger, who has been in the band since 1995 and is responsible for providing the lead vocals and the lead guitar
• Ryan Peake, who has been in the band since 1995, provides rhythm guitar and backing vocals, as the keyboard.
• Mike Kroeger, who provides the bass for the band, and has also been in the band since 1995
• Daniel Adair, who performs drums, percussion and backing vocals, and has been a member since 2005.

However, the band also had three other members, such as

• Brandon Kroeger, who left the band in 1997 but provided the drums 
• Mitch Guindon, who left the band in 1998, and joined after Brandon Kroeger's departure, providing the drums
• Ryan Vikedal, who joined following Mitch's departure from Nickelback, performing drums and percussion, who left the band in 2005, to be replaced by Daniel Adair.

Timeline of Nickelback's projects

Nickelback has produced 10 albums. Here's a quick look at his most recent album releases.

Album Overview:

(Music videos were released for tracks marked with video icon, explicit songs marked with E)

The Making of Silver Side Up:

Releasing on September 11 2001, Nickelback were riding on the commercial success of their previous album, The State, which during the recording phase of this had almost reached gold certification within America, requiring 500,000 copies of the album to be sold. Many of the songs for this album, however, were already written, having been wrote during the production of The State, with some of these tracks being played live before being released on their first tours, such as Track 9, Hangnail and Track 6, Hollywood. Upon completing the recording of the album, the band announced the lead single for the album would be "How You Remind Me", and by July 2001, this had been sent to many rock radio stations and with this, a resurgence occurred of their previous album, with The State re-entering onto US Charts.

Upon the release of the album, it debuted at No. 2 in the Billboard 200, having sold over 170,000 copies within the first week, with the album also debuting at the No.1 spot on the Canadian Album Charts, becoming a defining moment, as their first record to both enter and top the chart, and within a month of the release, became their first Platinum Album, surpassing their previous album.

Quick Statistics:

• Nickelback currently has over 23 million monthly listeners according to Spotify
• Nickelback's How You Remind Me is also their most-streamed song on Spotify, having been streamed over 1 billion times.
• Silver Side Up has a collective 1.55 billion streams on Spotify
• Silver Side Up is a 6x Platinum album within the US and a 3x Platinum album within the UK.

UpBeat Reviews:

This week, I decided to do something a bit differently, and ask some UpBeat members to review a song of their choice from this album, and give me a short sentence here's what they thought:

Che (Senior Developer)

When asking Che for a review, he initially replied with "i like how you remind me because he never made it as a wise man and i didn’t either 5/5", so I decided to probe him further for a review... We did not get one.

OllieW (Senior Moderator & Content Mentor)

OllieW had a glance at this album, and one song stuck out to him, How You Remind Me, here's what he had to say about the hit song: "When I think of a throwback, I think of this song. It's a classic rock-grunge song with an amazing headbanging instrumental. It's been in quite a few movies, mainly where I know it from, but it is still a banger! 4/5"

What the Critics had to say:

With every album, the critics will of course have a say, but what did they have to say about Silver Side Up by Nickelback? Let's have a look!

Best Lyrics 

Nickelback performing live in Glasgow | Source: Moshville Times

Lyrics are what make albums stand out from any other music, this is the case with Nickelback and here at some of the top lyrics that stood out to me when listening to this album:

• "We all live under the same sky, we all will live, we all will die" - From Never Again
• "Never made it as a wise man, I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing" - From How You Remind Me
• "Well, I’ve done wrong, and I want to suffer for my sins" - From Too Bad

My Review:

4.0/5 Stars

It's clear to me that Silver Side Up is a gritty, and emotionally charged album, capturing a moment in which Nickelback took their rise to mainstream rock fame, as can be seen by the blend of post-grunge angst with radio-ready hooks, the album also delivers some great vocals with Chad Kroeger's raw vocal style being present throughout the album, showcasing emotion and passion at the same time. Although at times the album feels too formulaic, which is the only thing preventing it from a 5 in my books.

Join the Discussion:
I'd love to hear your thoughts! What’s your favourite track from Nickelback? Share your opinions in the comments! Thank you for reading this edition of Album Insights! See you next time!