Today the band posted a cryptic picture on Facebook, with the words “Beautiful Lie” written on it. As of now, we are not sure whether it’s a new song, or a new album/EP title. Time will tell. Whatever it is, it will be released on February 2nd, 2024.
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Just listened to it, it’s a new single, and it sucks. After they took a step forward with Chaos in Bloom, this is two steps back. It’s just shallow pop music created to make a minor dent on the charts. So disappointing.
I concur. It sounds like a Magnetic b-side. I see many similarities with “Save Me From Myself”, though the latter was better in my opinion. Also, what happened to bridges? This song has none.
It sounds like save me from myself. I mean it’s kinda peaceful if you want no deep listens, but this isn’t what they’re made to do! I thought run all night was pretty good but this isn’t up to those standards at all. Where’s the drums and guitars? It sounds like a basic pop song, that’s what it sounds like, and unfortunately I get to hear a LOT of that on American radio.
Oof. As with the other commenters this one is certainly not my taste, to put it gently. I miss being able to discern between the instruments on a song…
ok its not the worst Goo song ever. It’s just a little meh imo. I like old shoegaze, and ambient music, and it sounds like they’re trying for that. Just not quite getting there.
In this interview https://www.mnprmagazine.com/news/goo-goo-dolls-beautiful-lie/ John says it’s “chill” (which yes ok) but also that it’s “a departure from Chaos”
ummmm no. This is a perfect fit for Chaos. Could be perfectly wedged in between Save My Myself and Superstar.
It’s a really sad song though, which surprises me. John hasn’t been writing as many of those lately
It’s funny, because I’ve made a few comments here & there saying I think this song is terrible, & I’ve been unsurprisingly jumped on by “fans” that will love absolutely anything GGD put out, regardless of quality. I can’t stand people like that. But the thing is, I am open-minded to different styles of music. Probably more so than the people going “let them do what they want blah blah blah it’s amazing <3”
One example is Chris Cornell, who is my favourite artist. I loved his whole body of work, from Soundgarden to Temple of the Dog, Euphoria Mourning to Audioslave, and I even liked a fair chunk of Scream, which at its heart is a pop/R&B record.
Listen to a few songs off Euphoria Mourning which I consider a 10/10 record, and then listen to a few songs off Badmotorfinger which I consider a 10/10 record. Do not tell me I don’t like an artist who doesn’t evolve and try new things.
But the variety of musical styles Chris Cornell put out always felt authentic. (Okay, maybe with the exception of Scream. Maybe. But when he performed some of those songs stripped down acoustically, like Ground Zero… WOW. So those songs at their core are still good)
For what it’s worth, I think GGD have dabbled quite successfully albeit infrequently over the past 15-20 years in different realms of musical styles. I like The Pin, Money Fame & Fortune and Going Crazy for example. But sometimes, they lean too hard one way and it’s as clear as day they’re chasing streaming numbers/radio play to appeal as broadly as possible. That’s when it becomes diluted, and I become disillusioned with the art. Beautiful Lie is so plodding & boring. It sounds creatively bankrupt. The auto-tune on his voice… yeesh.
I do like reminiscing about what the goo goo dolls once were, and will always bat for them as one of the most overlooked bands of all time in the rock genre, but I’m gonna do my best to try and dip out from new releases moving forward, and I won’t watch them live again unless they do an anniversary tour for one of their good records. I just don’t dig music like Run All Night or this new one, or Miracle Pill, Or Magnetic, or something for the rest of us. It’s been a long run of “well, maybe the next record they’ll smash it out of the park”. Chaos in Bloom was something of a brief resuscitation, there was a couple of songs on there which you knew were written without streaming/radio-play in mind, but it was predictable the sequel to that record would go in a different direction because Chaos wasn’t a hit.
Oh man there’s so many good observations there, ty
“Diluted” …. yes, that’s the perfect description! So much of the current stuff sounds diluted to me. Tepid. It’s not awful. John is too good a songwriter to write something truly shitty imo, but he can definitely write a boring nothing song when he’s not interested.
The in lurv fangirls will adore and defend anything Johnny does. Always has been. They’re Johnny Rzeznik fans more than music fans, iykwim. Ok, whatever.
I’m into all genres too. In a day I could easily listen to Daft Punk then Willie Nelson then Sam Fender. I welcome something genuinely new from the band. Something interesting they’ve not done previously. I’m open. I think my two favs thing over the past ten yrs has been the Otis shows and the 21 ep – both were out of character for them. Something they desperately need. There seems like a lot of uncertainty and hesitation with the band which I can only ascribe to boredom or people pleasing.
I thought when John sold his song catalog that meant either he was ready to retire, or he was ready to throw caution to the wind, break out of the mold, ditch the lackluster “professional” co writers, and make music with passion and purpose. Not yet.
Yeah, it’s been a long run of dashed hopes, and I feel bad bitching, I really do, but the clock is ticking now, lets face it. They’re not going to get another big hit. They’re too old, too outside what’s popular. They look foolish trying. So they can either coast along milking the nostalgia fans, or create something worthy and cement their legacy.
Well said. I do feel like it’s just people pleasing at this point. But if you look at the comments on the BL music video they’re all like “This song is great I’ll always love goo goo dolls!” And stuff like that. Yep, all those little girls that would go to the gutterflower shows and scream and love over Johnny have grown up and are STILL obsessed over him. I’m not saying don’t like Johnny, cuz he’s amazing, but there’s Robby too, who is also AMAZING, and there’s a lot of their music no one knows because they play it safe to the newer music. Whatever. I can’t control all those people. I just hope Johnny realizes that this isn’t going to get him anywhere. Really, they aren’t about to get another hit. They really do look stupid trying. They’re almost 60 now, not 25…
I wish I could “like” this comment, so I will give a nod of agreement instead… this is well said.
I’m all for artists trying new things even if it’s not always successful — that’s what keeps things engaging. I guess my issue with this song in particular is that I don’t find it experimental to hand a song off to the producer and let them do whatever they want with it. The songwriting itself isn’t experimental, nor is the melody, or the instrumentation, or the vocal take, even if the effects might be. It falls very inside the box of what counts as commercial pop-rock music today; if someone told me this song was written by (or for) Imagine Dragons or Maroon 5, I’d believe it.
After listening a few times to try and give it a fair shake, I don’t even really feel like it’s an attempt at chasing radio plays — to me it just feels complacent. I’ve seen it happen with other bands before; great musicians who just get burned out over time and cede too many of the creative decisions to outside songwriters. Collaboration can be a great creative spark, but here it feels like a crutch instead.