Let Love In

This is the third single and title track of the Goo Goo Dolls' eighth studio album. Lead singer Johnny Rzeznik wrote the anthemic tune with producer Glen Ballard and Gregg Wattenberg (Train's "Hey Soul Sister"). On the surface, it seems Rzeznik has let love in by allowing a girl to break down his walls, but he's really singing about the need for love in a hate-filled society. "I have been writing more about social and political stuff lately. It's scary, worrying times down here right now," Rzeznik told Canada.com. "People think I just write songs about girls, but they're not really about girls. It's just a metaphor that works for me. I can try to address some social issues in a sort of cryptic way, but writing about politics has never really been my thing."

The band's previous album, Gutterflower, was a commercial success with more than 700,000 copies sold, but in the eyes of the record label, it was a failure in comparison to their monstrous 4-million seller Dizzy Up The Girl. The band tried to figure out where they went wrong and decided they needed to bring in some new collaborators, including Alanis Morissette hitmaker Glen Ballard. "He's such a great producer," Rzeznik told Vice magazine's Noisey in 2015. "That record sounds so good! There was a certain amount of strength, this perfect balance of strength and sentimentality in the guitars. Glen was the first producer that was so compassionate with what the 'artist' wanted to do. It was almost like a psychologist. He wanted to know what we were trying to say here. He didn't kiss our asses, like we were writing in an echo chamber and him telling us it was good. He was very, very adept at steering us in the right decision."

With just over 500,000 copies sold, the Gold-certified album wasn't as commercially successful as its predecessor, but Rzeznik ranked it as his second favorite Goo Goo Dolls album behind 2013's Magnetic.