Love Angel Music Baby - Gwen Stefani

Isn't it funny how trends change with the passing of time? Only a few years ago, No Doubt were a deeply, deeply unfashionable band with a penchant for writing quasi-ska tunes and the odd monster hit or two. Their revitalisation and newfound critical appraisal came with 2001's 'Rock Steady', an album that brought the band's pop conscience to the floor and ditched the old ska trappings (and hooray for that - there was a time when the alternative music ...
...Might Mighty Bosstones, all bands consisting of men over 30 in short trousers making idiots of themselves). Singer Gwen Stefani's appearance on the Dr. Dre-produced Eve track 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' heralded the arrival of a singer who was unafraid of experimentation and breaking free of her band, nor would she be a singer to be pigeonholed into one category. Fast forward just a few years and Stefani is the 'it' girl of the moment, a style icon to ... more

Isn't it funny how trends change with the passing of time? Only a few years ago, No Doubt were a deeply, deeply unfashionable band with a penchant for writing quasi-ska tunes and the odd monster hit or two. Their revitalisation and newfound critical appraisal came with 2001's 'Rock Steady', an album that brought the band's pop conscience to the floor and ditched the old ska trappings (and hooray for that - there was a time when the alternative music scene was dominated by bands like Rancid, NOFX and the Might Mighty Bosstones, all bands consisting of men over 30 in short trousers making idiots of themselves). Singer Gwen Stefani's appearance on the Dr. Dre-produced Eve track 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' heralded the arrival of a singer who was unafraid of experimentation and breaking free of her band, nor would she be a singer to be pigeonholed into one category. Fast forward just a few years and Stefani is the 'it' girl of the moment, a style icon to millions who has become a figure of unimpeachable cool. But then, the music world loves a blonde, don't they? Stefani continues a lineage of cool blonde icons from Debbie Harry to Madonna to Courtney Love, and if the critical appraisal of this album is anything to go by, it looks like Gwen's going to be around for a long time.

Stefani has undoubtedly been No Doubt's meal ticket to success. Without her, they'd be a distinctly average band with no exposure and no big hits. And Stefani isn't that good a vocalist, either. But she has a stage presence and charisma unlike many in the modern pop world, and No Doubt's rise to success is unarguably on the strength of this. So it was no surprise when Stefani announced that she was going to record a solo album. And 'Love, Angel, Music, Baby' is the result. One could argue that as the face, voice and lyricist of No Doubt, why would she need to record an album on her own? What difference would it make? The answer is that it would make a huge difference, as this is too knowingly weird to be a No Doubt album, from the A-list collaborations to Stefani being trailed around wherever she goes by four Japanese 'Harajuku Girls'.

First of all, let's just get past that abominable album title. It's apparently the name of Stefani's fashion label, so at least she's being consistent. Putting that to the back of our minds, let's concentrate on the music… The album takes in a variety of different styles, from breathtaking 80's pop, to unashamed bashes at hip-hop, retro, electro and balladry, all infused with the distinct sense of charismatic weirdness for which Stefani is becoming familiar. Anyone expecting serious singer-songwriter stuff in the vein of 'Don't Speak' will be seriously disappointed. This is an album designed with the dancefloor in mind. The list of producers and collaborators on the album reads like a musical 'who's who': Andre 3000 of Outkast, Linda Perry, The Neptunes, Eve, New Order, Dr. Dre... Stefani has chosen her influences and collaborators very carefully, picking the most fashionable to work with. No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal even pops up, showing that Gwen hasn't left her old band-mates completely in the lurch during her time away. I wonder what they've busied themselves with while she has gone global?

'What You Waiting For?', one of the biggest radio tracks of recent times, is now utterly familiar to the public but loses none of its freshness and sparkle. It opens the album like a call to arms, a statement of intent that signals the bold direction Stefani is adopting. It has a deceiving opening, making you think it's going to be a piano-driven ballad, before the 'tick tock, tick tock' drum beat and heavy bass kick in to reveal one of the most dynamic pop singles of recent times. The song is apparently about Gwen taking a chance ('you stupid ho') at having a solo career before she runs out of time. And at 35, she's got a lot of catching up to do, but she's already laid a foundation with No Doubt. The song begins a theme of references to Harajuku, the stylistic capital of urban Japan. Gwen has caught onto a trend and adopted it, much like Debbie Harry and Madonna, and it is paying dividends for her. The references to Harajuku continue throughout the album, and into the strange spectacle we call 'real life', with Stefani being followed around by four 'Harajuku Girls' wherever she goes, four omnipresent hand-maidens, backing singers, dancers, whatever you want to call them.

Eve pops up on the Dre-produced 'Rich Girl', a re-write of 'If I Were A Rich Man' from 'Fiddler On The Roof'. The song has great bounce and propulsion, a manifesto to urban bling-bling and material gain. A 'Material Girl' for the 21st century, perhaps. The Neptunes-produced 'Hollaback Girl' has the potential to be irritating and repetitive, but Stefani just about pulls it from the brink. It also contains some of the most absurd lyrics on the album: "Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas/B-A-N-A-N-A-S/This shit is bananas/B-A-N-A-N-A-S". Bob Dylan it ain't, but that's not the point. 'Cool' has exactly the right title, a wonderful little song that draws from influences as wide-ranging as Fleetwood Mac and Cyndi Lauper (whose under-appreciated quirky stylings inform much of Stefani's album and style).

'Crash' is so utterly cool and of-the-moment, evoking Salt 'n' Pepa in their prime. The song was produced by No Doubt bandmate Tony Kanal, demonstrating that Stefani is not the only one with musical chops in No Doubt. It also demonstrates how Stefani has locked herself into a unique and unassailable position of being appealing to both the mainstream and the fringe. This is an album which has a lot of alternative credibility, yet it would not sound out of place on the Top 40 countdown on Radio 1 or playing down at the local chav disco where spotty youths could pump their sovereign-fingered fists in the air in appreciation of the material. The Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs are among the other bands who have recognised the importance of straddling both camps and they all do it well. Perhaps this is the way alternative music is going…?

Kanal returns for 'Serious', an unashamed tribute to 80's pop with its gloriously slippery synths and hi-hats. It's smart, knowing and cool without being over-indulgent and laying the irony on too thick. One of the undoubted highlights is the magnificent 'Danger Zone', located towards the end of the album. It affirms Stefani's status as a musical force to be reckoned with and an upgraded model of Madonna. A wonderfully catchy chorus combined with a hook that sounds like it could have been pulled from a Blondie album indicates a moment of true musical genius. Meanwhile, Andre 3000 of Outkast pops up on the fuzzy, fizzy 'Bubble Pop Electric', one of the most out-there tracks on the album, thoroughly weird and mystifyingly leftfield, a song from the world's most manic jukebox.

A lot of the album seems to be like the audio equivalent of the Emperor's New Clothes, dressing raggedy old familiars in brand new, top-of-the-range clothing. The odd thing is that one of the album's strengths is also its weakness. The sheer variety and scale of collaborators make the album feel somewhat disjointed at times and lacking in coherence. While Stefani is a performer of great charisma, on this album she lets the producer and the collaborator rule her and as a result, the album loses focus. Instead of carving out her own sound and musical style, she seems all too willing to adopt the styles of her collaborators.

There are a couple of tracks on the album which are just plain weak, such as 'The Real Thing', co-penned by over-rated rent-a-writer Linda Perry of shouty 90's rockers 4 Non Blondes. It has a recognisable, propulsive bass by Peter Hook of New Order, but is quite a tepid, lukewarm song for an album filled with sugar-rushes of pop. 'Luxurious', which finds Gwen back in her hip-hop outfit, is also a weaker moment, sounding ever-so-slightly insincere and contrived, despite its Saint Etienne-esque bleeps and blips. The second Andre 3000 collaboration, 'Long Way To Go', has a lyrical theme (race relations) which is too deep for this album and so sounds too weighty, with some truly dire lyrics ("It's beyond Martin Luther/Upgrade computer") Stefani's vocal sounding too mannered and disingenuous, and as a result it struggles to be taken seriously. The splicing of Martin Luther King speeches was a good idea, but it isn't pulled off effectively. 'Harajuku Girls', Stefani's paean to the Japanese culture she endorses and has adopted as a trademark, is also a little too kitschy and self-indulgent.

Despite these weaker moments, Stefani has proved that she is a musical heavyweight to be reckoned with. She has dragged 80's pop back into the limelight, mixing it with a distinctly 'now' flavour. It isn't anything like No Doubt, and fans of that band may be disappointed, feeling that Gwen has 'sold out' in her embrace of the pop world. That's utter rubbish, No Doubt have hardly been the heaviest of bands and have always had a firm pop consciousness. The presence of Tony Kanal on this album also sells short the notion that Gwen has sold out in any way. This album is cool, fashionable and contemporary, but aside from all that vogue-speak, it's also pretty darn good.

'Love, Angel, Music, Baby' is available from Amazon.co.uk for £8.99 

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