Goo Goo

No, Brandy's not pregnant. That would interfere with our ability to drink like champions on our impending Alcohol Tour of Europe™ (also known as the Joy of Drinking™ tour).

The title refers to the band, the Goo Goo Dolls. And no, I don't like them; I rather dislike them, honestly. They make innocuous radio rock (that I once heard brilliantly described as "unoffensive") in much the same vein as Counting Crows, except not good.

So why am I writing a post about them?

Well, I'd been ripping MP3s of my huH Magazine music samplers and decided to ride a wave of nostalgia and actually listen to them. So as I sat, surfing the Web and listening to random tracks, I was grabbed by an intro soaring from my speakers, at once anthemic and evocative. I raced (with my mouse) to pull up the iTunes window so I could see who was playing this heart-stirring guitar call just as the song shifted into the verses.

Oh, the Goo Goo Dolls.

It was then that I realized why I dislike this band: because I could like them. Let me explain.

To me, the song, "Flat Top," suffers from the exact same problem I had with one of their big radio hits, "Black Balloon." I really like their guitar intros and, to a lesser extent, their choruses. But the verses bother the shit out of me. And as far as I can tell, that's because all the verses sound the same.

I'll let the music tell the story.

"Flat Top" - intro [links pull up an MP3 file, so it should launch your music player]

See, wasn't that nice? Sweeping, catchy, very nice. But then, it devolves into the same old, double-time, Johnny Rzeznik verse. But wait for the return of the intro, this time as the chorus.

"Flat Top" - first verse and chorus

It's that contrast - the parts I like, I really like and the parts I don't, I really hate - that drives me batty. If it all just sucked, I wouldn't care. But I want to somehow rescue the good parts and make them into their own good song.

Oh well, sometimes it's best to just recognize the soul-crushing nature of promise unfulfilled and get on with it.

I'm fast-forwarding to the Mother Hips and "Shut the Door," which was also a part of those samplers. Ah, sweet music...