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I’m lovin’ it --- ExpressIndia.com Album Rev
« on: Aug 25th, 2006, 10:59pm » |
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I’m lovin’ it
Mush ado about the Goo Goo Dolls
Paroma Mukherjee
FOUR years after Gutterflower, the Goo Goo dolls return with Let Love In as their summer release. Spending six months in Buffalo, his native town, front man John Rzeznik penned the tracks in a masonic lodge for the band’s latest effort.
The band seems to have taken a planned step to ensure an overall melodic and commercial sound on the album by hiring Alanis Morissette’s producer Glen Ballard for Let Love In. Focusing clearly on pulling those soft strings this time, the band has decided to give a mushy yet tangy flavour to all the numbers on the album.
Beginning with Stay With You, an average rock ballad, it takes the Goo Goo Dolls the next track to finally seem like their old self. With some compact reversed chords and synthesiser flutes that introduce the title song, the composition shows some character as Rzeznik’s vocals layer perfectly over the consistent guitars.
However, the band fails to revive their old charm with very run-of-the-mill follow ups like Feel the Silence and Better Days. What strikes one immediately about the album is the band’s confined use of live instruments other than the violin and the regular guitars. Without You Here is one of the more acoustic numbers with a passable melody. With Listen, Robby Takac comes to the band’s rescue, picking up the pace. Give a Little Bit and Can’t Let it Go assert the electronic-metal sound of the album that is still at this point, surprisingly devoid of the use of eerie power strings that skyrocketed the Goo Goo Dolls to their initial fame.
In spite of Rzeznik’s strong vocals and perfect harmonies, the overall sound of the album seems like an attempt by an inexperienced rock band to try their hand at the subtler and commercially-viable genre of rock. We’ll Be Here finally sees a solo guitar piece that lasts for a while, much to the delight of the fans. Rzeznik tries to revive the album with Strange Love, stuffing it with harmonies and a pleasant, unusual melody. It may be unfair to expect the Goo Goo Dolls to repeat an Iris, as it remains one of the defining rock ballads of the decade, but the least they could do is to fight against producing an album that sounds pleasant and consciously toned down in terms of the band’s original sound and style. Maybe it’s time for the band to rethink a little and let music in for a change.
Let Love In, Warner Bros
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=198373
Stay True & Rock On!
Triest
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