Goo Goo Dolls - "Let Love In"(Warner Bros., 2006)

There's very little on this, the Goo Goo Dolls' eighth album, that suggests the band is capable of anything but middle-of-the-road pop rock. And maybe, after "Iris" earned the band a mainstream name, the band stopped caring about making anything but middle-of-the-road music. Not a single song on "Let Love In" has the elemental sound that made "Name" such an alternative hit back in 1995, and that's a shame. Because songs like the band's cover of "Give A Little Bit," or their Christmas-themed pop number "Better Days" do little to develop the band's sound. Instead they make a case that there's very little left that Johnny Rzeznik has worth saying. Considering the four year wait since the band's album Gutterflower, and the eight years since their last decent album Dizzy Up The Girl, one has the right to have expected something more from this utterly forgettable album.