By Charlie Denison
Gwen Stefani’s first solo album, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby,” is the best album ever made for a girl’s sweet sixteen dance party. Stefani mixes pop hip-hop, alternative and a little rap with seven producers ranging from Dr. Dre and Andre 3000 to Dallas Austin and Tony Kanal. If you like No Doubt, chances are you won’t like this album. If you love to dance to poppy ’80s music, go buy this album today!
“I just wanted to get the dance-pop album out of my system,” said Stefani in Rolling Stone.
And that she did.
“Love. Angel. Music. Baby” is not the No Doubt Gwen Stefani we know. It’s hardly even the Stefani that collaborated with Moby on “South Side.” With artists such as Eve, Andre 3000 and Johnny Vulture collaborating with her, it’s easy to lose track of where Gwen Stefani came from and what is her musical niche is.
The singles “What You Waiting For?” and “Rich Girl” are definitely the standouts. Don’t be deceived — the album is not consistent. “Rich Girl” was produced by Dr. Dre and is what Rolling Stone calls a “Fiddler on the Roof” goof. It’s also been called an updated “Material Girl.” Eve and Stefani have a unique musical chemistry that Dre embellishes with an excellent mix.
The Neptunes produced “Hollaback Girl,” a cheesy song about how Stefani likes to play hard to get. She constantly repeats, “This my s— as the Neptunes put down a catchy beat.” The song includes the most ridiculous lyric of 2004, “The s— is bananas: B-A-N-A-N-A-S!” which repeats several times.
The most shocking number on this album has to be “Luxurious,” produced by Nellee Hooper and Tony Kanal. Stefani steals and slows the beat from Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa” and, as the beat plays, she sings about her marriage with Gavin Rossdale: “This kind of love is getting expensive. / We know how to live, baby.”
Andre 3000 and Stefani close the album on an unusual note with a spoken-word intro to “Long Way to Go”: “We’ve got a long way to go. When the snow hits the asphalt, cold looks and bad talk come. We’ve got a long way to go. It’s beyond Martin Luther, upgrade computer.” They then continue in unison with “His skin wasn’t the same color as mine but he was fine, he was fine.” Are they talking about the same Martin Luther? Perhaps Stefani is referring to King, Jr. and Andre is referring to the Martin Luther that led the Protestant Reformation in 1517. The song recounts the difficulty of an interracial relationship despite the well-known fact that Stefani is married to Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale.
Stefani is not the first rock star to come back from Japan overwhelmed by the women. Rivers Cuomo mentioned a Japanese girl in two songs off his album “Pinkerton.” But two songs are nothing compared to Stefani’s frequent shout-outs. One song is appropriately titled “Harajuku Girls.” In that song, she claims to be their biggest fan. The repetition of “Harajuku” leaves you wondering just who these Harajuku Girls are and what they’ve done to No Doubt. The only No Doubt song that anything on this album resembles is “Hey Baby.” If you like that song, this album won’t be a complete letdown.
For another amusing dance-pop album, pick up Beck’s “Midnite Vultures.”
