Goo Goo Dolls

Miracle Pill

WarNer Bros Twelfth album from gracefully aging pop punks.

The so-so performance of 2016’s so-so Boxes signalled that Goo Goo Dolls’ imperial period was over. Three years on, they’ve kept their major deal but they’ve re-trenched, and Miracle Pill is the sound of a band coming to terms with themselves, without losing the craft and understated power which made them so beguiling in the first place.

They’re singing to their children on Fearless and Lost, Indestructible is almost a Killers homage, and they tread softly but carry a big stick on Money, Fame & Fortune, which would be the standout were it not for the twists and turns of the Carsesque Step In Line. There’s no reboot of Iris here, which is probably for the best, but there is the sense that Goo Goo Dolls are having a most Indian Summer. Good work indeed. ■■■■■■■■■■