RIFF095 - Nickelback - Silver Side Up

From Riffology: Iconic Rock Albums Podcast Riffology

When Being The Biggest Band In The World Becomes A Punchline

Hosts: Neil & Chris
Duration: ~108 minutes
Release: 28 September 2026

Episode Description

After a five week break, Neil and Chris return to tackle one of the most unfairly maligned rock records of the century. Nickelback's Silver Side Up arrived on 11 September 2001, the same day the world stopped paying attention to new music, and somehow still went on to sell eight million copies and produce the most played song in American radio history.

This is the episode where the lads defend Nickelback properly. Not ironically, not with caveats, but with genuine affection for an album stuffed with hooks so sharp they should be regulated. Neil traces his history with the band back to a handwritten gold CD-R a mate lent him, packed with Cowboy Hat, Leader of Men and a load of American radio rock that felt like a breath of fresh air amid the nu-metal shouting of the era.

The central question: what did Nickelback actually do to deserve twenty years of being used as shorthand for bad taste? Neil compares the backlash with U2, a band who put an album in his iTunes uninvited and took themselves far too seriously, versus Nickelback who just wanted to write massive choruses and have a laugh.

What You'll Hear:

Why Silver Side Up works when Curb and The State didn't quite land, the jump from seven out of ten hooks to ten out of ten
The 11 September 2001 release date and where both hosts were that day
Roadrunner Records, the A&R battle to sign a band that didn't fit the label roster at all
The post-grunge pile-in: Creed, Three Doors Down, Staind, and the lazy "they all sound the same" criticism
Embedded Chad Kroeger interview clips on songwriting, self-criticism and failing to trash a hotel room
Next episode announcement: Lindsay joins for Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral

Featured Tracks & Analysis:

How You Remind Me gets the full treatment, including the fact it nearly wasn't the lead single and that everyone sings the "are we having fun yet" line wrong. The drum tech, Andrew McWhinney, earned $5,000 for suggesting the dead stop in the third chorus. Kroeger explains how Ryan's arrangement ideas lifted the chorus and split the title line in two.

Neil argues Never Again and Woke Up This Morning should both have been singles, and that Too Bad, written about Kroeger's absent father, is where the songwriting finally gets authentic. Plus the SSL console story: the same desk that recorded Slippery When Wet, Dr. Feelgood and Metallica's Black Album, produced by Rick Parashar of Ten and Temple of the Dog fame.

Tangential Gold:

Neil being tricked into watching Titanic by a woman, having mistaken the submarine opening for a documentary
Barney convincing his 70 year old English teacher grandma that a Russian torpedo sank the Titanic
The Velcro sander incident, Lizzie, a banister, and a melted pad
Chris's mechanical watch running an hour fast after some vigorous hand movements
Sweet tax on the school bus, the ongoing Rowntrees sponsorship campaign, and nobody eating Bounty
Forcing an 11 year old to watch Alien and Aliens, a public service warning

Why This Matters:

Silver Side Up is thirty-nine minutes and ten tracks of absolutely relentless radio rock, and the hosts make a compelling case that the hatred was never really about the music. It was about ubiquity, about a band being too big and too unbothered to defend itself. The cultural tide has turned, Nickelback are cool again, and this episode is a reminder that liking things is better than sneering at them.

Perfect for: Anyone who secretly kept Silver Side Up in rotation, fans of early 2000s American radio rock, people who enjoy long detours about submarines and Velcro, and listeners who want a genuine defence of a band that never deserved the kicking.