Goo Goo Dolls Boy Named Goo CD

Goo Goo Dolls: John Rzeznik (guitar), Robby (bass), George (drums).
Producers: Lou Giordano (tracks 1-11); Rob Cavallo, Goo Goo Dolls (tracks 12-13).
Engineers: Lou Giordano (tracks 1-11); Jerry Finn (tracks 12-13).
Recorded at Beartracks Studios, Suffern, New York and Soundcastle, Los Angeles, California.
All songs written by John Rzeznik or Goo Goo Dolls except "Disconnected" (Mann/Piranha/Secrist/Sinister) and "Slave Girl" (M. Blood/J. Jakimyszyn).
A BOY NAMED GOO shows that the Goo Goo Dolls have soaked up all the elements necessary to make them a great guitar band. The album's title clearly harkens back to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" and its narrator's search for the people who named him; but the Goo Goo Dolls aren't taking that path. They already know their past (straight-ahead post-punk), and A BOY NAMED GOO plots out their present.
With a smart-alec, bar-band approach reminiscent of the Replacements, the Goo Goo Dolls rage about being "Disconnected"--that "someone pulled the plug." They sound worried on "Long Way Down," realizing that "I don't think I'll make it on my own." "Burnin' Up" offers another key to the Goo Goo Dolls' garage sound by adding a smidgeon of Husker Du (the Bob Mould guitar chimes and Grant Hart's melodic vocal sense are properly reproduced). But it's on the acoustic "Name" that the Dolls' own context emerges. The song complains ...