Review Summary: The Goos of lore have evolved their sound into a pop-oriented package that, FINALLY, gives their fans the breath of fresh air the band needed to stay relevant.
30 years. This amount of time constitutes the entirety of what many consider to be the middle-age of an average human being. For the Goo Goo Dolls, this number represents the amount of time they've spent evolving.
Evolution isn't really the first word many would use to describe the pop-rock duo hailing from Buffalo, but it has defined their surprisingly dynamic career. They formed in 1986 as a punk outfit in Metal Blade, barely able to play their instruments and often under the influence of alcohol and other drugs when showing up to record or perform. Their third album,
Hold Me Up, signified their transition into their Replacement-style alt-rock days, a trend that continued with the critically well-received but oft overlooked
Superstar Car Wash. However, after they broke through on mainstream radio with "Name" in 1995, they eventually morphed into the adult contemporary mom idols we know today.
The point in mentioning all of this today is that the Goo Goo Dolls are, at their heart, a band that knows how to tweak the various facets of their sound and still maintain their identity. Even post-
Gutterflower, where the rock edge of the band finally eroded into non-existence, they've been able to make subtle changes to their sound that is apparent in the tone and construction of the production. The unabashed sweetness of
Let Love In, the cautious pessimism of
Something For the Rest of Us, and the sunny retread of 2013's
Magnetic. But where does this leave Rzeznik and Takac in 2016? The guitar-pop that they used to make a "name" for themselves back in the late 90s has been repackaged, relabeled, re-titled for the past decade. With
Boxes, the band has finally broken free of their limitations and given themselves room to *gasp* EXPERIMENT.
Synths and electronic effects dominate this record, but despite the fact that they should seem out of their comfort zone, nothing here seems too out of place. After 2014’s EDM collaboration “Lightning” with Cash Cash, it almost seems a natural progression for John. Crescendos and heroic choruses dot the course of this record, with a proper showcase being the decent first single “Over and Over”. This sounds very much like a solid modern pop record, with the heart and effort of someone not merely seeking to recreate past success. The most noticeable improvement on this record is the lyrical content, with John reemphasizing a focus on his own experiences, leaving behind the pseudo-U2 wishes for world peace, but being more emphatic on songs like “The Pin” and “So Alive”, with the latter boasting an excellent piano hook that conjures images of Jack’s Mannequin. “Flood” actually pulls in Sydney Sierota of Echosmith fame for a duet that’s actually well-executed. Throughout the record, Rzeznik never sounds wearied, cynical or jaded. The optimism doesn’t seem like a marketing ploy, but a return to form, if they ever lost it. And on “Souls in the Machine”, the album’s undisputed highlight, the band actually manages to recall the sound of one of
Gutterflower’s best and most overlooked hits, “Think About Me”.
A great weakness of this record has to be the percussion, which seems a little compressed in the mix. For devoted fans of the Goos, this should come as no surprise as long-time drummer Mike Malinin was released in 2014 after complications with regards to his new-born daughter. The faults of the production are most apparent in mid-tempo snoozers like “Reverse”. The Robby tracks are also slightly disappointing as Robby’s voice does not mesh well with the poppy production they go for here.
So, this album does nothing to appease those die-hard fans from the mid-90s who have long since given up on hopes for an alt-rock revival, and their original metal fans probably will continue to snicker at them when their music pops up on the local radio station. But for the people who appreciate the melodic craft and emotional heart of the Goo Goo Dolls, this at its core is their most sincere album since the turn of the century. You knew who these guys were. Give them another look here.
