Cullen Wade is back with another CD picked randomly from his basement. If you are confused about what's happening or why it's happening on this blog, click here for an intro.
Maybe a bit outside my normal lane, but I was a big fan of Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby album when I discovered it in 2005. I picked this one up on release day in 2006 because I didn't want to miss out. It's possible I only listened to it all the way through once--I remember being distinctly unimpressed with it.
On a relisten, this album isn't bad, it just suffers from "trying too hard to imitate its predecessor" syndrome. LAMB was such a hit that Gwen thought she'd found a formula that really worked, & proceeded to copy it song for song. With sparse guitar chords & an Akon feature, the lead single title track tries to follow up "Rich Girl"; "4 in the Morning" wants to be "Cool"; "You Started It" is this album's answer to "The Real Thing," etc. The Neptunes get more work here, producing almost half of the album. One secret weapon from LAMB that only makes one appearance here is songwriter extraordinaire Linda Perry, who penned 3 tracks on the previous album. Her only contribution to this one, the closer "Wonderful Life," is probably the record's best song.
Like its predecessor, The Sweet Escape is much better when it's rooted in '80s pop than when it's trying to make rap music. The best of the rap experiments is probably "Orange County Girl," with a bouncy 2000s R&B type beat from the Neptunes. Gwen doesn't embarrass herself here with the delivery, which is more than can be said for "Breakin' Up," another Neptunes production, which wants really badly to be a Young Jeezy song, & Gwen sounds frankly ridiculous on the hook. "Yummy," complete with Pharrell feature, is an ambitious failure, though the premise is admirable, & the minute-long industrial outro (shades of Depeche Mode) is pure Neptunes genius & I kinda wish that were the beat for the whole song. Don't get me started on the absurd, Swizz Beatz-assisted misfire that is "Now That You Got It," or the ill-advised Sound of Music-sampling opener.
The songs that stick best to the '80s pop style where she excels are "Wonderful Life," with its Human League-style synths, & "Early Winter." Even when she stays in the '80s, she stumbles a bit though, like "Fluorescent" which apes Madonna a little too hard. I would love to hear a full album of pure '80s pop from Gwen, but given that her last record was a 2017 Christmas album, I kinda think that isn't in the cards. Still, in my alternate timeline where this whole album sounds like "Wonderful Life" & "Early Winter," Gwen is the true heiress to Debbie Harry's throne.
No comments:
Post a Comment