Review Summary: It shines, it sparkles... it's everything a pop album should be, from someone who no one thought would make one.
Fishing in my parents' CD holder for some long lost treasure, I wind up finding the next best thing: my mom's copy of No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom. I don't remember ever listening to this wonderful album, but its singles were out of this world -- classics in their own rights. Gwen Stefani knew how to rock back then, and presumably she still knows how to rock now.
Suddenly, out of nowhere... I remember. Oh goodness, how could I have forgotten? I go back into my CD case and turn page after page, desperately trying to find what I'm looking for. Is it here? Is it there? Where in the world can it be? Finally, with immaculate joy I pull it out of its pocket and hold it up. I've found it. Truly, it is something to behold. Gwen Stefani's first solo CD, Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
I then wonder to myself -- why does hardly anyone remember this CD or talk about it anymore? It was huge at the time, and listening to pop stars like Lady Gaga or Lily Allen or even Miley Cyrus, it's pretty fair to say this CD (if not just Gwen herself) is somewhat influential on pop music today
Then again, as popular as it was... there were just as many people who wondered "Gwen, what have you DONE?"` They wondered where their rock-princess went, and who replaced her with this lame-o rapper singer thing. Bleh.
Gwen was already experienced in the music biz (the previously mentioned No Doubt), but hardly any of that shows on this mostly club-oriented set-list. But thinking back, it was a smart move for Gwen to move on. To the average person, who was No Doubt? It was Gwen Stefani... and her backing band. After the new millennium, when she wasn't showing up on Eve's single "Let Me Blow Your Mind," then the band was trading in their pop-rock style for dance music (their Rock Steady which benefited, at least commercially, from her new glamorous makeover). In 2004... this album? It's not something she could have made with the band.
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But the shift in style was natural for her, if not for her fans. The immediate stand-out track is opener "What You Waitin' For?" where amid doubts (and dance beats), Gwen explains to others her reasons for making this record and simultaneously challenges herself to keep on keeping on.
Her charm and style show brilliantly on songs like this, and there are plenty to go around, such as the almost-high-school-anthem "Cool" which around the half-way mark keeps the party going smoothly, 80s style.
Actually, a lot of this album is influenced by 80s music. You could be forgiven for mistaking it for an updated Madonna record -- all the talk about fame, money, glamor, and sex is there, particularly in "Rich Girl" (featuring Eve, finally returning the favor) and "Bubble Pop Electric" (featuring Andre 3000 as Johnny Vulture).
Speaking of, one of the weakest moments on the album involves good ole' Andre. "Long Way to Go" isn't a bad song -- even rejected songs from Speakerboxx/The Love Below are flippin' fantastic. It's just that this song is such a mood-kill, trying to end the CD on a serious note, even going so far as to incorporate a segment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in it. It doesn't help that it came after another stand-out track, "Danger Zone," which is the closest thing to No Doubt that Gwen's ever done by herself.
Gwen's fascination with the 80s is only countered by her fascination with the harajuku culture of Japan, which is a underlying theme throughout the first half of the album, culminating in the odd song "Harajuku Girls." It's such a strange lyrical theme to have for the album, almost homoerotic in the song itself, but luckily once it goes it's gone for good.
Just like any great pop album, this one has a mega-hit, the ever-popular "Hollaback Girl." I can't help but be reminded of Justin Timberlake, who pulled off a similar solo feat not two years before Gwen. His mega-hit was "Cry Me a River," which had the same bitterness Gwen spat on hers. Difference is, Gwen sounds like she's having fun as she dreams of being head cheerleader on top of the pyramid that is the world.
And on top of the world she was -- no alterna-fans or mainstream rebellions could stop her meteoric rise. Unfortunately it all went downhill from there. Long awaited follow-up The Sweet Escape turned out to be a rather forced-sounding L.A.M.B. 2.0 (did anyone actually want to hear Gwen Stefani YODEL?), then after a tour and a few singles she practically vanished... back into her leading role in No Doubt. Yay!
But no one should forget that 2004 was a great year for music in every genre. Okay, so there weren't any real classics (American Idiot? College Dropout? Pfft), and even the greatest of albums had pit-falls... but there was still great music to be heard! And this would be the center jewel of pop music for at least another year. Sure sometimes it's inconsistent and even strange. Sure it's shallow and contrived. Sure, it's mainstream fluff...
...but that's the point, now excuse me I'm about to listen to it again.
