The success of the Goo Goo Dolls, adult contemporary radio sensations and chick flick soundtrack staples, seems as effortless as their perfectly tuned pop melodies. The Buffalo trio has made a career out of harmless, yet stirringly romantic guitar anthems, from 1995's "Name" to the oft-quoted 1998 hit "Iris." On the surface, they are a one-dimensional band, content with churning out soft hits for soccer moms and satisfying the tender demographic that a 50 Cent and Fall Out Boy-dominated radio leaves behind. But underneath the Goo Goo Dolls' initial success lies another career entirely, one made up of scrappy garage rock and the frustration that comes from success on other people's terms.
Let Love In, the band's 10th album, is a reflection of these mixed sentiments, with plenty of catchy ballads to satisfy Goo trademark and enough sophomoric filler to harken back to the days before such a trademark existed.
The division between popular Goo and garage Goo has almost always been split between lead singer-guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac. Every album since 1995's A Boy Named Goo has featured an almost-even distribution of songs written and sung by both members, and the differences between the two are notoriously apparent. Rzeznik, a tattooed-yet-sensitive singer with perfectly messed hair and a smooth, everyman voice, provides the hits that make the band. Takac, an eccentric, dreadlocked figure lacking in the easy affability of his bandmate, has a scratchy, skin-crawling voice that is immediately displeasing. And while Takac's tunes have thankfully never seen the light of day, it's impressive how willing the band is to feature his tracks opposite Rzeznik's. It is a gesture that allows them to return to the imperfections of their thrash-rock past, and a relieving act that frees them from feeling the hollowness of overt commercial success.
Let Love In continues this balancing act, with radio-friendly hits from Rzeznik and discouraging duds from Takac. The disc opens with "Stay With You," a track that follows the hit-making formula of past gems "Slide" and "Here is Gone." "Take my hand now / We'll run forever / I can feel the storm inside you / And I'll stay with you," Rzeznik croons over power-anthem guitars, providing a soft yet big-sounding melody so comfortably typical of the band. The title track is just as uncomplicated — "Now I'm banging on the door of an angel / The end of fear is where we begin / The moment we decided to let love in" is not a particularly profound chorus, but it easily carries the weight of a romantic sentiment, again, so trademark of the band.
The most quintessential Goo moments come halfway through the album with "Better Days." The album's first single begins with a haunting piano line and blossoms into a rhythmic, breathtaking chorus of emotional pleas for the world to "begin again." It is all at once disarmingly beautiful, the kind of song loved secretly by everyone but only publicly by those who are especially secure with themselves.
Most tracks on Let Love In are of this guilty-pleasure variety, so easy to adore yet so hard to admit preference for. Some, however, are so unimpressive that they only merit mention for their stark contrast to tracks like "Better Days." "Listen," a mid-tempo snoozer sung messily by Takac, halts the album's momentum so badly that three Rzeznik songs are necessary for the band to regain their composure. "Strange Love" also dulls the album's luster, but thankfully comes after nine tracks, enough time for listeners to tire of the band's acoustic warmth in general.
It is these sub-par tracks, however, that give light to the career that the Goo Goo Dolls cherished before success came to them in waves of supermarket soft-rock and dentist's office soundtracks. Rzeznik may pose gracefully in pictures and lip-synch sensitively in videos, but the band isn't quite ready to accept a destiny filled with sitcom commercials and date-night movies, a future so fitting for their songs' easy charms. Songs like "Strange Love," although decidedly out of place on pop orchestrations like "Let Love In," are an attempt to kindle the fire of the band's earlier days. That fire, however, inches ever closer to burning out on their 10th album. It may be time for Rzeznik and his band to resign to the amiability of their most popular hits; until then, there is exists an awkward balance of the band's healthy progression and their reluctance to let go of their grungy roots. The result is a pleasing yet unprofound album that shines on despite not reaching its full potential.
Rating: 3 out of 5
