Gwen Stefani | Short Cuts | South Florida | Broward Palm Beach New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Broward-Palm Beach, Florida

Music News

Gwen Stefani

Your friends are totally going to make fun of Gwen Stefani's first solo album. Granted, they have quite a bit of ammunition at their disposal. "Cool," a synthy pile of schlock about Stefani's overly coifed marriage (to Bush's Gavin Rossdale), just sucks. "Harajuku Girls" is amusing in a blippy, ring-tone-happy kind of way, but the overtly exotic gist of the song is pretty fucked up: "The ranguage of your crothing is somesing to encounter," Gwen giggles. Um, sorry, no. Frankly, a lot of the album -- its ridiculous title, for one; Stefani's "mad rhyming skill" on "Hollaback Girl," for another -- is downright embarrassing. But Stefani works potential humiliation like a SoCal Madonna -- with an impenetrable (and in Stefani's case, accessible) grace that saves her ass time and again. The weird Grease-esque subplot on "Bubble Pop Electric"? I like it, especially framed as it is by girl group-meets-No Doubt harmonies and nonstop, effervescent beats. Even the really weird Fiddler on the Roof bite on "Rich Girl" has a certain flair to it. So if you can put up with the campy indulgences here, tell your friends to piss off, throw a slumber party for yourself, and bounce around your bedroom in your undies while you sing backup, Material Girl-style.
KEEP NEW TIMES BROWARD-PALM BEACH FREE... Since we started New Times Broward-Palm Beach, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of South Florida, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" program, allowing us to keep offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food and culture with no paywalls.
Rachel Devitt

Latest Stories