Love, Angel, Music, Baby – the first solo effort from Gwen Stefani, No Doubt’s former lead vocalist – is an ultra slick and polished American pop album. The title forms an acronym for Stefani’s diffusion clothing range, Lamb, and a sure sense of style, both visual and aural, is one of this beautiful diva’s big strong points (look what she’s doing with Alice In Wonderland in her ‘What Ya Waiting For’ video).
Yes, Love, Angel, Music, Baby drips with it. Each track is a distinct little hit-single, destined for the global Saturday night dancefloor. Some are too twee for my taste, pure bubble-gum, but most of these songs are much deeper and smarter than your average poppy dance tune, with lyrics that reward repeated listening, and a plethora of up-front musical references that read like an encylopaedic history of excellent pop.
Madonna, of course, is a huge influence, clearly evident in Stefani’s spoken-word style and the brilliant ‘Harajuku Girls’, which starts off like ‘Papa Don’t Preach’; Cyndi Lauper’s here, too, in the slow American rock piece ‘Cool’, and Salt ‘n’ Pepa are all over the wonderfully rauchy ‘Crash’.
Stefani attracted top names for collaborations on this solo debut: ‘Rich Girl’ features rapper Eve and was produced by Dr Dre; the fabulous ‘Hollaback Girl’ was produced by The Neptunes and ‘The Real Thing’ utilises New Order to fantastic effect. There’s gems a-go-go on Love, Angel, Music, Baby – buy it if you love good pop.