Taking One for the Team

Taking One for the Team is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Simple Plan. It was released on February 19, 2016 through Atlantic Records and represents the band's first full-length record in nearly five years. Following the release of three buzz singles in mid-2015, the band released "I Don't Wanna Go to Bed" featuring American rapper Nelly as the official lead single for the album on October 16, 2015. It debuted at number 4 on the Canadian Albums Chart, earning the band their fourth consecutive top-5 and a perfect streak of top-10s for their first five studio albums.

Singles
"I Don't Wanna Go to Bed" was released October 16, 2015 as the album's official lead single. The song features pop and funk influences in a stylistic departure from the pop punk and pop rock of the group's earlier work. A Baywatch-inspired music video premiered October 15, 2015 – a day before the song's digital release. It has since peaked outside the top 50 on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 54.

"Singing in the Rain" was released as second single from the album on March 25, 2016. However, the single version of the song does not feature R. City. The music video for "Singing in the Rain was released on April 12, 2016; set in the 1960s, it was a tribute to the movie That Thing You Do.

"Perfectly Perfect" was announced as the third official single on September 26, 2016.

Other songs
The first song released from the era was "Saturday" on June 22, 2015. In September 2015, drummer Chuck Comeau revealed the song would not be featured on the album.

"Boom" was released August 28, 2015 as the second promotional single after its music video premiered a day earlier.

A third buzz track, "I Don't Wanna Be Sad", was released September 18, 2015. Initially presumed to be the album's first official single, it was later announced to be a promotional track only.

The band released the album tracks steadily leading up to the release date. A music video for "Opinion Overload" was released on February 5, 2016. "Farewell" was released on February 14, followed by "I Refuse" on February 15, "Nostalgic", "P.S. I Hate You" and "Perfectly Perfect".

At the end of the album, Canadian sports announcer Bob Cole calls a fictional ice hockey game featuring Simple Plan, concluding with, "Oh my goodness, can you believe it? Just like that, Simple Plan have won the game!".

Reception
Taking One for the Team received generally favorable reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 65 based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing
All writing credits per booklet.


 * Bonus tracks

Personnel
Personnel per booklet.


 * Simple Plan
 * Pierre Bouvier – lead vocals; additional backing vocals
 * Chuck Comeau – drums; additional backing vocals
 * David Desrosiers – bass, backing vocals; additional backing vocals
 * Sebastien Lefebvre – rhythm guitars, backing vocals; additional backing vocals
 * Jeff Stinco – lead guitars; additional backing vocals


 * Additional musicians
 * Lenny Skolnik – programming, keyboards, additional backing vocals
 * Howard Benson – Hammond B3, Vox Continental
 * Jonny Litten – additional backing vocals
 * Chady Awad – additional backing vocals
 * Melanie Fontana – additional backing vocals
 * Sidnie Tipton – additional backing vocals
 * Myah Langston – additional backing vocals
 * Jordan Pundik – guest vocals on "Farewell"
 * Nelly – guest vocals on "I Don't Wanna Go to Bed"
 * Juliet Simms – guest vocals on "I Dream About You"
 * R. City – guest vocals on "Singing in the Rain"
 * Bob Cole – play-by-play announcer


 * Production
 * Howard Benson – producer
 * Neal Avron – mixing
 * Mike Plotnikoff – recording
 * Hatsukazu "Hatch" Inagaki – recording
 * Paul DeCarli – digital editing
 * Gersh – drum technician
 * Marc VanGool – guitar technician
 * Wendell Teague – assistant engineer
 * Chris Bousquet – assistant engineer
 * Scott Skrzynski – mixing assistant
 * Chris Gehringer – mastering
 * Ryan Stewart – co-producer on "Perfectly Perfect"
 * Chapman Baehler – album photography
 * Simple Plan – art direction, concept
 * Fred Jérôme – art direction, concept, layout design