Something for the Rest of Us

The first album in four years from the Buffalo, New York, trio sounds like the darkest moments of previous Goo discs stuck together in a 48-minute marathon of middling angst. For many groups, digging deeper and hitting harder would be a good thing. But when your specialty is multiplatinum pop rock measured in terms of radio friendliness, you end up just sounding lost. Even at their most bombastic, as on the disconsolate initial single 'Home,' these Dolls never bellow; frontman John Rzeznik remains an assured singer. But amid his vocal polish is a new sense of strain, and for a band this lightweight, the additional anxiety doesn't flatter.