Metal Hammer

May 1995

GOO GOO DOLLS A Boy Named Goo
Warner Bros

THINGS could go either way for the Goo Goo Dolls. This kind of music - guitar-based, melody-driven songwriting - can propel bands to untold riches or else yield nothing at all. Pearl Jam got the former, School Of Fish got the latter. And the difference between the two bands is nothing that this scribe can see.

'A Boy Named Goo' is a good record, though just how good is what one might call an unknown quantity. It isn't particularly instantaneous (more of a literate rock album, if you catch the drift), but it does contain some fine songwriting, often recalling the Beatles.

There is a feeling that if the loathsome spectre of MTV got on the case, then the Goo Goo Dolls might just get the gold. This has nothing to do with how good a band or an album is, but it has everything to do with how many people know how good it is. And there is a difference.

3/5
lan Winwood