Album Review by EDF
The long awaited solo album from the pretty one out of No Doubt. Luckily for us its not the three guys but Gwen Stefani who has put her personality all over this album. With more producers then you could shake a stick at, how does a whole album of various styles hold up? The Nellee Hooper produced opening track, WHAT YOU WAITING FOR is a great party track but feels familiar in a kind of Pink way. RICH GIRL, featuring a rap from Eve, is produced by Dr Dre and does not quite sound like one of his productions. The Neptunes percussion led HOLLABACK GIRL works best when you press the fast forward button on your remote.
The lightweight COOL, the overproduced BUBBLE POP ELECTRIC and the fake soul like LUXURIOUS all sound like they were recorded in the 1980’s. HARAJUKU GIRLS is too bizarre to even attempt to describe but the experimental sounds make this one of the better tracks. THE REAL THING has a bit of that New Order bassline thing going on while DANGER ZONE is one of the more commercial tracks to be found. SERIOUS is downright funky while the Andre 3000 duet and produced LONG WAY TO GO sounds like it was recorded in a different dimension. With all these different producers spread all over the album, it sounds uneven. The first half of the album is average and the second half is, in its own way, enjoyable. This does have its moments but you have to make up your own mind where to find them.
