They teased the release of their third album, The Long Road, with the melodic mid-paced single “Someday,” which delivered everything their fans were used to. Now that the album is on the shelves, Nickelback hope to catch listeners with their pants down.
“I like you with your pants around your feet, and I like the dirt that’s on your knees,” Chad Kroeger sings before stabbing guitars puncture the track. “Figured You Out,” one of the heavier songs on the album, will go to radio in early November. A video will be shot in the coming weeks, but a director has not yet been chosen.
“We all had a rocker in mind for the single,” Kroeger said. “We definitely wanted to crank things up. But it was a tough call because we wanted to keep the fans happy and the four of us wanted to be happy.”
Like many tracks on The Long Road, “Figured You Out” is about a conflicted relationship, but it’s a little more graphic than many Nickelback ditties. Kroeger begins with a sexual innuendo, then shouts about how he’s smitten by the dangerous vixen of the song. “I love the powder on your nose… / I like the way you’re not impressed when you put me to the test/ I like the white stains on your dress.”
“I love touching on topics in songs that make people uncomfortable,” Kroeger said.
Although Kroeger begins “Figured You Out” by praising his troubled girl, he quickly loses patience: “I love good times that you wreck and I love your lack of self-respect/ When you’re passed out on the deck, I love my hands around your neck.” In the end, the song evolves into yet another tale of romance gone awry.
“I’ve had four failed relationships that each lasted more than two years, so I’ve got a lifetime of song material to work with,” Kroeger said. “I’ve fought over the most ridiculous things. Once I argued about a pizza topping to the point we were ready to break up and we wound up saying a lot of sh- to each other over pizza. It just makes good subject matter for songs.”
Strangely, as rife as his songs are with tales of woe, Kroeger insists he hates arguing and likes to avoid confrontation.
“I’m not the one starting any of these arguments,” he said. “With all the relationships I’ve been in, I feel like I’ve already argued enough for three lifetimes. And Lord knows being in a band with your brother isn’t easy. I feel like I got my master’s degree in arguing.”