Forget the album cover, which looks like homemade artwork on a CD handed out by a desperate artist patrolling the boardwalks in Venice Beach.
Get Rollin'
continues the back-to-basics approach
Nickelback
started with 2017's
Feed the Machine
, stripping away anything that doesn't contribute to their heavy-footed wallop. All power chords and thick backbeats, traits that are still evident in the power ballads,
hardly sounds modern but
have been around the block enough times to not even attempt to hide their advancing age: they not only indulge in wistful nostalgia for "Those Days," they call one of their songs "Skinny Little Missy" as if they were grandpas. Being comfortable in their own skin suits
, though. They're more likely to wind their way around a sunny, irrepressible hook like they do on "High Time," a good-time weed anthem that's their catchiest pop tune ever, and they also polish "Tidal Wave" with spacy, retro '80s affectations that actually suit
Chad Kroeger
's surging melody. Now that they're veterans,
don't try so hard to be heavy, nor do they indulge in their tasteless side: they're craftsmen who know how to deliver the goods, which -- on its own terms --
certainly does. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine