Gwen Stefani: Sweet Escape - Review by Stephen

We all know the story on Gwen Stefani, don’t we? She was in a band "No Doubt", which created many top 10 hits, and became a worldwide success. "No Doubt" then went on a little "break", and Gwen launched her very own solo-career, betraying the rock roots of the band "No Doubt", by putting together an album full of empty pop songs. To be honest, not all were so hard on our ears, were they?

I mean sure, it was music "No Doubt" would have been ashamed to put on a disk, but it seemed that for Stefani, it was going to work out just fine.

Skip ahead a few years, and she's married, and has a son who is always wearing the latest fashions (like he cares what he wears?). Then Gwen decided to do the unthinkable… release more solo material.

The album goes by the name of "The Sweet Escape", and has produced some hits already. The terrible, scary, "Sound of Music", meets Stefani and Pharell music mash-up "Wind It Up".

Lest we forget the only decent song I’ve heard her do in a while, (the albums title song) "The Sweet Escape".

The songs on the album are repetitive and just flat out bad. The lyrics will have you scratching your head, saying to yourself "What the hell was she drinking, when she wrote that?"

The ballads on this album, lack. They are dull, boring and lyrically bland.

The one song that did catch my attentive ears was, "4 In the Morning'. Gwen gives us a semi-good vocal performance with nice instrumentals. The lyrics are relatable, and understandable and puts your mind in the situation that Gwen's going through.

The disk then spits out, the extremely naughty but enjoyable "Yummy", yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s not exactly art, but its fun, and that’s something a lot of singers have seem to forgot to have when recording a album. Gwen sings, "I’m feeling yummy, head to toe".The song will make you feel Yummy, and in the mood to get up and dance.

Stefani then gives us a song that is a complete rip-off of her first album, called "Fluorescent", right down to the instrumentals, it sounds like a recycled piece of work.

Out of nowhere, the album spins into this hip-hop phase for the song "Breakin' Up". The sound does NOT work for Gwen, and she needs to re-think what genre she is best singing, because this is (I repeat) NOT it.

Up next, more garbage with "Dont Get It Twisted". The song is like carnival music. It will give you a headache just reading the lyrics. "Don’t get it twisted, don’t get clever, this is the most craziest **** ever." It’s nice to see a singer’s song writing abilities being able to grow, isn’t it?

To wrap up the album, with a semi-decent song "Wonderful Life", Gwen goes into a sound, that’s a bit odd. The song is like a mash-up of "Winter Wonderland" and that "No Doubt" sound we've come to miss.

Before you know it the album is over.

Not to say its overall a terrible album, its just not very good compared to stuff Gwen has showed us over the years.

Thank god "No Doubt" is coming back together, because with a album like this under Gwen's belt, it shows that it's been much, much, much, too long.

Overall review for "The Sweet Escape" is 2/5 stars. The "No Doubt" comeback better be damn good, or Gwen will lose her reputation as a talented person.

Tracklisting for the Album

1. Wind It Up
2. The Sweet Escape - featuring Akon
3. Orange County Girl
4. Early Winter
5. Now That You Got It
6. 4 In The Morning
7. Yummy - featuring Pharrell
8. Fluorescent
9. Breakin' Up
10. Don't Get It Twisted
11. U Started It
12. Wonderful Life