GWEN STEFANI: The Sweet Escape (Interscope)
HERE'S a riddle for you: When is Gwen Stefani
like Missy Elliott? Answer: When she's not like 80s Madonna or an electro-synth Coldplay. Weird as it
sounds (and it does) these are the obvious influences on Stefani's
follow-up to her popular 2004 solo debut Love
Angel Music Baby. The opening track and by now overplayed single Wind It Up is a real Missy-sounding
electro tune with a broken-down beat, featuring samples from The Sound of Music's The
Lonely Goatherd. The title track (otherwise known as the one that goes “woo
hoo, yee hoo”) is the happy, bouncy second single, with a chorus
that could easily be Madonna circa True
Blue. Mates Pharrell and The Neptunes
step in on the funky Yummy, which
features a bizarre mix of computer game bleeps and bloops,
electric drill noises and lyrics about making babies, pastries and doughnuts.
But not even The Neptunes can save the incomparably
dreadful Orange Country Girl.
Although it's not quite as bad as Breakin' Up, in
which Gwen raps about her mobile phone in a shamefully dodgy extended metaphor
for a bad relationship. Sample lyric: “My battery is getting low, get me charged
up or you will regret it.” This is glossy pop with more misses than hits.