If the first volume of the
Goo Goo Dolls Greatest Hits stripped clean any vestiges of the Buffalo band's rock & roll past by concentrating on AAA radio hits, the second installment offers nothing but album tracks, B-sides, demos, fan favorites, and covers, almost all of which happen to feature the loud, blaring guitar that was conspicuously missing from
Vol. 1. This doesn't necessarily mean that the album is a full-blown excavation of
the Goo Goo Dolls beginnings, as it does focus on their major-label years, often digging fairly deep -- or at least far enough to exclude such MTV-ready singles as "We Are the Normal," cut before the days of "Iris." That breakthrough hit is here in demo form, providing one of the collection's lightest moments, but its very presence accentuates how this collection is designed to rope in diehards who have been around since the beginning and probably wish
the Goo Goo Dolls never cut "Name." Featuring a bunch of high-octane rock & roll (with everything that phrase suggests), this is a good way for devoted fans to catch a lot of the band's better latter-day hard rock material and some rarities. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine