Gwen Stefani - Love, Angel, Music, Baby
by antiGUY

Gwen Stefani - Love, Angel, Music, Baby.
Label: Interscope
Rating: 

There is no doubt about it--Gwen Stefani has sold out! With the release of Love, Angel, Music, Baby, the Orange County rebel girl has completed her transformation into plastic pop diva from The O.C. Like the fictitious nighttime soap locale, this version of Gwen is hardly recognizable from the real thing. By real thing, I mean the ska-happy Gwen that made her name taking chances on a style of music that radio programmers were not exactly falling all over themselves to play back in the day. 

It is easy to understand the tendency to go more commercial. With the continued taste of success that Gwen has found over the past few No Doubt releases as she sold her soul to Carson Daly piece by piece, she must have just decided to jump in head first with this solo album and take a big risk.  The courageous Gwen treats us to a collection of songs that come from deep within the mainstream's pockets and are utterly devoid of substance. It would have been one thing if Gwen had gone the other way and made a hardcore album; that would have been a risk. All she risks here is losing the fans that gave her a career, in hopes of landing a new batch of radio friendly jr highschoolers. Let's be honest, she got away with her previous slides down the sellout slope, (just listen to the last No Doubt CD) so now that she is putting this out under her own name why not pull a Gene Simmons and create a banal album that's designed simply for the shallow masses? 

Congrats Gwen, you have succeeded. Bob, tell her what she has lost! 

"You've lost all credibility!" 

Gwen starts off this album letting us know exactly where she is going in her career. "What You Waiting For?" bombards the listener with a mind-numbing disco beat and cheesy pop arrangement and backup vocals. Think the Spice Girls. 

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, Gwen tries to be Christina Aguilera with "Rich Girl" which includes a guest rap by Eve.  Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. 

She continues her flirtation with urban pop with the incredibly inane ramblings of "Hollaback Girl". A song so simpleminded that you may lose IQ points just listening to it. 

"Cool" is the closest we come to the Gwen we know, except with an extreme pop makeover. Gwen goes for broke in her quest for utter stupidity with "Bubble Pop Electric," a song so silly not even Britney Spears would record it. Although, it does sound like that was who Gwen was trying to rip off. 

For "Luxurious" Gwen puts on her Xtina wanna-be personality again and then takes things to a new low with the electro urban-pop of "Harajuku Girls". 

Gwen reaches her most plastic moments with "Danger Zone", which sounds like a Tiffany b-side. You can just see Gwen frolicking on a prop stage in a mall to this one. Yes, it is that bad! But it might be where we will find Gwen performing in a couple years. 

Not even Andrew 3000 can save this garbage and make it cool--the final song "Long Way To Go" does have one thing going for it; the title is honest, as Gwen does have a long way to go to regain her credibility after putting out this piece of pop compost.