Gutterflower

Gutterflower is the seventh studio album by American rock band the Goo Goo Dolls. It was released in 2002 on Warner Bros. Records. It is the follow-up to their critically successful albums Dizzy Up the Girl and A Boy Named Goo. The album was commercially successful upon its release, hitting No. 4 on the Billboard 200, their highest position on the chart.

Gutterflower
Studio album by the Goo Goo Dolls
Released	April 9, 2002
Recorded	August–December 2001 at Icon Recording Studios and Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA, and House of Blues Studios, Encino, CA
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	41:36
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Goo Goo Dolls Rob Cavallo
The Goo Goo Dolls chronology
What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce (2001) Gutterflower (2002) Live in Buffalo: July 4th, 2004 (2004)
Singles from Gutterflower
"Here Is Gone" Released: March 5, 2002 "Big Machine" Released: September 17, 2002

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	(91%)[2]
AllMusic	[3]
The A.V. Club	(average)[4]
Blender	[1]
Entertainment Weekly	C+[5]
PopMatters	[6]
Q	[1]
Rock Hard	(8/10)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Slant	[9]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Big Machine"		3:10
2.	"Think About Me"		3:58
3.	"Here Is Gone"		3:58
4.	"You Never Know"	Robby Takac	3:08
5.	"What a Scene"		4:24
6.	"Up, Up, Up"	Takac	2:58
7.	"It's Over"		3:35
8.	"Sympathy"		2:58
9.	"What Do You Need?"		3:48
10.	"Smash"	Takac	2:26
11.	"Tucked Away"	Takac	3:13
12.	"Truth Is a Whisper"		4:00

All tracks are written by Johnny Rzeznik, except where noted.

Singles

"Here Is Gone" and "Big Machine" have been the only two songs released from this album as singles and videos have been created for both. A video for the promotional single "Sympathy" was also released.

"Big Machine"

John Rzeznik refers to this as his "disco song". "I'm really horrible at programming drum machines, but this was like pattern 74 on my drum machine, which said 'disco.' I called all my friends and said, 'Check this out, this is my disco song!'" He describes it as "a propulsive tale of unrequited love". "Big Machine" was occasionally performed live on a smashed Stratocaster guitar that Rzeznik has fondly nicknamed "The Half-Caster". Despite being smashed in half, it still plays. It can be seen in a 2002 VH1 Storytellers special. Rzeznik stated that he had someone fix it up and it works just fine.

"Here Is Gone"

John Rzeznik wrote this song on the phone while talking to a friend. He asked his friend if he should "take the chords up or take 'em down?" and the friend told him to "take 'em up" and that's how he came up with the chorus and the rest of the song came together shortly thereafter.

According to Rzeznik in 2007, the video for this song cost more to produce than the entire Gutterflower album itself.

Reception

• Upon release, Gutterflower received generally positive reviews from critics. In fact, although The Goo Goo Dolls' multi-platinum album Dizzy Up the Girl (which was Gutterflower's predecessor) sold around 3,000,000 more albums than Gutterflower, reviews were equally positive.
• In 2005, Gutterflower was ranked number 499 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.^[10]

Personnel

• Johnny Rzeznik – guitar, lead vocals
• Robby Takac – bass, background vocals, lead vocals on "Smash", "Tucked Away", "You Never Know" and "Up, Up, Up"
• Mike Malinin – drums, percussion

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for Gutterflower Chart (2002) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[11] 23 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[12] 8 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[13] 43 Italian Albums (FIMI)[14] 41 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[15] 37 Scottish Albums (OCC)[16] 40 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[17] 20 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18] 89 UK Albums (OCC)[19] 56 US Billboard 200[20] 4

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for Gutterflower Chart (2002) Position Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[21] 173 Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[22] 54 US Billboard 200[23] 164

Certifications

Certifications for Gutterflower

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[24]	Gold	500,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.