Now, I know that Dizzy Up The Girl is a bit more poppy-sounding and not as punk as the Goo's earlier stuff. So when I popped this into my CD player, I wasn't really sure what to expect...would this be more Jed or DUTG?

I was blown away.

This is an incredible CD...It should have been MORE successful than Dizzy Up The Girl. The quality of the music is incredible...It's littered with articulate, passionate lyrics, impossibly catchy hooks, and some of the most challenging guitar solos EVER. This is probably the only CD I can put in my CD player and not have to press the skip button once.

The diversity of this album is great, too. For those of you who don't know, the Goo Goo Dolls bass player, Robby Takac, also writes and sings for the band. For some reason, his songs are never released as singles. Some people don't listen to his songs, most likely because they get too used to John's crooning and when Robby's high, raspy voice comes on don't want to take the time to appreciate it. When John writes, he tends to go in all directions...anything from anthemic power pop to acoustic ballads to hard edged, give-em-the-middle-finger punk. Robby tends to stay closer to one style-- fast paced, bouncy punk. (Ive never heard a Robby song with an acoustic guitar) The subjects of Robby's songs tend to be quirky and original, while most of John's songs are usually about love, dating, what have you.

When you combine John's and Robby's voices, whether it being in a duet ot them simply singing back up for each other, good things happen. They do a duet on this song called String Of Lies, and it kicks serious butt. Buy the CD and listen to String Of Lies, you'll understand what I've been writing about. Hell-- buy this CD and listen to all the songs. There's something for everyone. Iris fans will enjoy We Are The Normal, (it has a violin solo and the lyrics were written by Paul Westerburg) Fans of the early stuff will love Domino and String of Lies, (Semi-Angry lyrics with blaring electing guitar) and people who just wanna listen to some good Rock n' Roll will enjoy On The Lie, So Far Away, and Fallin' Down.

I hope this review was insightful. The Goo Goo Dolls are so much more than Iris and Name, even though those are good songs. They have an actual history, and work hard to get to where they are...so check out this CD! You won't be disappointed.

i really like the guitar work on this album. it is especially good on the track 'stop the world', which may not have been all that great without it. as usual, john rzeznik's vocals are exceptional, robby's falling short again. the one song that they didn't write on this recording, 'we are the normal', is a very powerful and realistic song about life and death. other songs that i like are 'string of lies'(a very interesting duet between john and robby) 'cuz you're gone' (because 'you diconnect yourself from it all because you know that you're so beautiful and so untouchable' is such a great line) 'so far away' (very good vocals by john) and 'domino' (actually sung by robby, but very good backgrounds by john)

this is my favorite band in the world in their best form. i know the goo goo dolls for this music, and i hope that others may come to know them for this, also.