*~Dizzy Up The Girl~*
Reviews of DUTG~these reviews just prove to me that a band who has been working hard for so long will be put down when they have success. Check out some of the reviews of their older albums and see for yourself.
Exclusive Review from MTV
The Goo Goo product-development dilemma: both "Name" and "Iris" are ballads penned by a band best-loved by its hard core fans for its blistering live shows. The Goo Goo Dolls have built a reputation over the past 12 years, starting from their home base in Buffalo, New York, as a quintessential live band.
For Dizzy Up The Girl, it's not as if the band has traded in its fuzzbox for a jar of syrup; it's just that the guitar distortion is more tightly controlled and rigorously regimented. The result is evident on the opening track, "Dizzy," high-energy power-pop with a well-honed balance between angst and exuberance, melancholy and balls. Crunching guitars are briefly unleashed at the beginning, but reined in and replaced by softer picking before the vocals make an appearance.
This record is hard to dislike, but it's also hard to get too excited about. Sure, the Goo Goo Dolls have perfected a formula, and it's impressive to witness.
But innovation isn't everything. Take it or leave it, "Dizzy Up The Girl" is, in its harmlessness and obviousness, just a stellar example of what post-punk power-pop's been moving toward for years.
© 1999 MTV Networks. All Rights Reserved.
Exclusive Review from Rolling Stone
The Goo Goo Dolls' hit, "Iris," on the City of Angels soundtrack, was one big hunk of summertime cheddar, a song about doomed love swathed in violins. On Dizzy Up the Girl, their sixth album, the Dolls bring the strings -- and arranger David Campbell -- back for an encore. "Black Balloon," "Acoustic #3" and "All Eyes on Me" are all symphonic poems in the style of "Iris," which is also included here.
These sensitive-guy anthems suggest that the Dolls are wandering into the minefield between maturity and schmaltz, a treacherous step once taken by the Dolls' obvious role models, the Replacements and Soul Asylum. Like those bands, the Dolls traffic in raspy-voiced, guitar-fueled rave-ups with a sentimental streak. "See the young man sitting in the old man's bar/Waiting for his turn to die," guitarist Johnny Rzeznik sings in "Broadway," picking up where the Mats left off with "Here Comes a Regular." And while he mostly plays second fiddle to "Iris" heartthrob Rzeznik, singer-bassist Robby Takac injects Dizzy Up the Girl with some wreck-the-room urgency in "January Friend," turns "Full Forever" into a long, escalating rant and, in "Amigone," asserts that "love's been marred by medication." Nothing like a few hits of vinegar to make the gooey ballads go down. (RS 797)
GREG KOT
Copyright © 1968-1999 Rolling Stone Network. All Rights Reserved.
