Gwen Stefani - Love.Angel.Music.Baby.

Genre pop Publisher Interscope Records External Links Official Site Interscope Records

This is where, if she were growing up the middle child, somewhere between Madonna and Fannypack, Gwen Stefani would act out in a bid for attention. But, as it is, after sixteen years in No Doubt she raids her diary for poetry and rides her hormones for inspiration, storming out of the house on "What You Waiting For?" an anthem big enough to encompass both her youthful neurosis and obsessive fixation with Japanese Harajuku girls. It's teenage diary material blown up to sing-along scale. It's finding a thrill in journal recitation over electro beats. It's trying to hold that feeling for an entire album. And alas, it's finding that a difficult thing to do.

Consigning her faith to POP, Gwen Stefani attempts everything dating back to Shangri-La girl/boy dramatic plays to New Order melancholy, pulling in producers and musicians iconic as she, in Dr. Dre, Andre 3000 and actual members of New Order. Throughout the album, we get glimpses of No Doubt guitar pop, most noticeably on "Cool," Madonna synth-pop on "Serious" and Fannypack city-girl, electro-pop in "Hollaback Girl." Her crack production team keeps things profitably contemporary throughout the history lesson. Andre Benjamin continues exploring the post-Prince, jazzy, speed-pop he mined on Outkast's The Love Below with "Bubble Pop Electric" and Nellee Hooper keeps Linda Perry's tunes in the present day despite their genre/era experiments.

Gwen's fine throughout so long as she remembers her Harajuku friends and keeps her mind on the boys. The record falters some, when she confuses her pop message for a Message message on "Long Way to Go." Reflections on racial politics, tacked onto the end of the album, awkwardly cap the youthful themes on the rest of the disc. Otherwise, "Rich Girl" doesn't have enough sugar, and "Luxurious" pushes too hard on a record that works best when the song construction slides by unnoticed as an effervescent sheen. And the multiple Perry-penned tracks tend to jam together as the record nears its end, lacking the formal distinction of the opening numbers.

In the end, the ease and simple pleasures of Love.Angel.Music.Baby. win out. The few duds can't drag it down no matter how hodgepodge the production or adolescent the lines. The ease she brings to simple tunes about love and teenage lust is heartening. She believes in her employed age and we can fall for it so long as the beat works and her voice hits the typically strong melodies. She trusts in pop and teenage idioms and does a good job of convincing us of her cause.