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Album Review - Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape

January 5th 2007 04:42
Album - The Sweet Escape
Website: www.gwenstefani.com

Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani


I must start this review by saying, I really really wanted to love this album. I thought Gwen's first album Love Angel Music Baby was brilliant....even if the constant cross-promotion of her clothing range got really irritating.


Unfortunately, the best I can say about this album is that it is Okay. It's not terrible. It's not great. It's just alright.

The cd starts out promisingly enough with her first single Wind It Up. I love anyone brave enough to use a sample of The Lonely Goatherd from the Sound of Music and funk it up. I really like this song. It's funky and it makes you want to bust a move.

The second song, and latest single The Sweet Escape is nothing short of fabulous. If you love pop music, you can't help but love this song. It's catchy, it's sweet and it's got attitude. Much like Gwen herself.

Track 3, the somewhat autobiographical Orange County girl is not bad and will satisfy R&B lovers.

Unfortunately, for me, the quality of the album just falls away after this point. The songs all kind of sound the same and it's all just a little bit bland. A word I never thought I'd use to describe anything that Gwen has ever done. It's all a bit homogenised RnB after that.


Don't get me wrong, it's not necessarily bad. The song Yummy is kind of fun. And the song Ain't it Twisted isn't too bad, but it just didn't grab me. Part of the appeal of her debut solo album was the diversity of the songs. Consistency seems to have been what Gwen was aiming for with this album.

By the way, I'm not sure if you realised it before. But Gwen has a clothing label L.A.M.B. You might not have realised because I think that there might be one song on her two albums that she didn't mention it in. Honestly Gwen, I love you, but can you write just one song that doesn't promote your bloody clothing label!! We all get it.....we just don't care.

I'll sum up the album by saying this. On my way to work this morning, I popped it into my cd player to give it another shot. Listened to Wind It Up, The Sweet Escape and the start of Yummy, before turning it off and popping Muse's Absolution into the cd player. Need I say more.......

That reminds me, I really need to get off my ass put some of my reasonably extensive cd collection into my bloody iPod so I can stop fucking about with cds in the car!!!

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Comments
8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Joe Blogg

January 5th 2007 11:40
Couldn't agree more.
Loved her first solo effort. Bought it on the strength of the first single and No Doubt catalogue.
But I've heard nothing on this latest effort that will make me shell out again.
Wind It Up is almost 'quirky by numbers' - trying to achieve the business of quirky as opposed to just being quirky if that makes sense.

Comment by tinkster

January 6th 2007 02:49
I like 'Wind it up'. She has performed that on the AMA and the Billboard Awards. She did a great job both times. I really love her husband more though. Gavin is a doll, and I hope that his band Bush could get something started. It has been a couple of years since we have heard anything new from them.
Come and talk to me
Tinkster

Comment by KylieW

January 8th 2007 03:11
Hey guys thanks for the comments!

I was definitely hoping for more from this album. I like Wind it Up and I really liked Sweet Escape until my sister played it seven thousand billion times this weekend (no exaggeration, it really was that many!).

Comment by Joe Blogg

January 8th 2007 07:30
That's wierd coz I realised just how much I like the song TSE this weekend.

Comment by KylieW

January 8th 2007 22:18
Obviously some of my sisters playing sent out 'I love TSE' vibes into the world.

Be careful next weekend when she plays her Guy Sebastian album 700 times. You'll suddenly find yourself inexplicably compelled to purchase the album. By the time the haze lifts, it'll be too late to return it.

Be afraid

Comment by MelissaA

January 8th 2007 23:00
Thanks for the info on that one KylieW!

Comment by Sisi

January 11th 2007 09:23
The Sweet Escape (the song) is one of my favourite songs on the album - so glad it's now a single!!

Comment by KylieW

January 11th 2007 22:30
It's a catchy tune isn't it. Just don't let someone play it 100 times in a day. You'll won't be able to listen to it anymore.

It's definitely the best song on the album

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