Gwen Stefani - Love.Angel.Music.Baby
When Love.Angel.Music.Baby is good, it threatens formulaic pop music with creativity and invention. When it is bad, it leaves listeners scratching their heads.
Gwen Stefani is a rare chameleon in music and pop culture. Only she can sneak from the pop world to the rock scene and back at a whim without losing credibility on either side. She designs her own clothing line and uses her record and live performances to promote it without having to hear the ubiquitous cries of “sellout!” that other enterprising artists must endure. It sounds like they could use a lesson from Stefani, who, despite being filthy rich, glamorous and hot, remains a very likable and creative artist after nearly ten years in the public spotlight. As a result, listeners want to like Love.Angel.Music.Baby.
Stefani’s solo debut blends retro grooves with diverse influences, hot producers, and guest stars, creating an album that is intriguing and fun like Stefani herself but lacks cohesion and consistency. Love.Angel.Music.Baby seems like it was built around singles, as “Hollaback Girl” and “Crash” come off as unlistenable filler and a couple of other songs feel like No Doubt castoffs. The album is all over the place, successfully borrowing from Fiddler on the Roof (“Rich Girl”) and the Isley Brothers (“Luxurious”) among others while melding the very different ideas of many people. Listeners will often find themselves skipping tracks because the album does not flow as a solid and unified work.
Love.Angel.Music.Baby combines typical subjects of love and relationships with bizarre recurring themes of Japanese schoolgirls, shameless self-promotion, and backseat sex. Although Stefani has always been an offbeat original, her new album takes creative, experimental, and weird to a surprising new extreme with varied results. The otherworldly beat of “Bubble Pop Electric,” one of two excellent collaborations with like-minded artist Andre Benjamin of Outkast, is unlike anything heard before. Singles “What You Waiting For?” and “Rich Girl” are great dance songs; “Serious,” “Luxurious,” and “Long Way to Go” are also highlights.
Thematically and lyrically, the album fails because listeners tire of L.A.M.B plugs and endless shout-outs to the Harajuku girls, who should be terrified of Stefani. According to the lyrics of “Rich Girl,” if she had enough money, she would buy four Harajuku girls, “dress them wicked” and name them Love, Angel, Music, and Baby. Japanese girls are not possessions Gwen! Obviously, this is not an album to listen to with focus; it is best to ignore the lyrics, which don’t always make sense anyway. When Love.Angel.Music.Baby is good, it threatens formulaic pop music with creativity and invention. When it is bad, it leaves listeners scratching their heads. It may be a mixed bag, but it is likely to have a huge influence on pop music.
(Interscope Records)