Idolator
- "Her music is polarized to match the lyrics: either sparsely rhythmic tracks where she chants as much as she sings, or pop songs that aim for choruses as catchy as Madonna's 1980's chart busters. The sound itself stays shallow too; except for Ms. Stefani's voice, nearly every note on the album is synthetic or sampled." [NY Times]
- "Stefani is now a 37-year-old mom...with increasingly distant but nonetheless genuine roots in punk. Yet instead of exploring either of these legitimate identities in her lyrics, which would be both more honest and more interesting, she persists in playing the role of pre-teen mall-rat Lolita so ubiquitous during the late '90s bubblegum-pop boom." [Chicago Sun-Times]
- "Ultimately, Stefani isn't convincing as a dissatisfied diva. She laments a dying affair on the majestic power ballad 'Early Winter,'' but her Orange County-girl voice doesn't seem genuinely sad. And unable to suppress her party-starting nature (or her ambition for big hits) for long, she teams with heavyweights like the Neptunes for half a dozen hip-hop jams. The fuzzed-out ''Breakin' Up'' uses a bad cell-phone connection as a metaphor for a troubled relationship, and it's as gratingly repetitious as those Verizon ads...B-" {Entertainment Weekly]
Gwen Stefani
Comments
Stefani is now a 37-year-old mom
oh geez, the age-bashing begins already? like liz phair's aborted comeback a few years ago, i'm sure there's plenty here to criticize without resorting to "but you're xx years old - aren't you too old for this?"
That cover photo, yeesh. She'll never leave OC at heart.
"The sound itself stays shallow too; except for Ms. Stefani's voice, nearly every note on the album is synthetic or sampled."
I am not following the implied cause-effect thing there.
Chicago Sun-Times...hmm...just which critic could that be? If an identity is legitimized by lived experience, why is Gwen not entitled to play with "being a pre-teen mall-rat Lolita" ? Gwen's from friggin' Orange County -- she probably has more mall experience under her belt than the whole lot of us put together!!!
Has Gwen Stefani ever HAD a critical heyday? I don't mind her, or No Doubt. She makes pleasantly danceable pop. Her musical development stopped evolving as an emulation of Madonna circa 1985.
The thing I DO mind is how a 37 year-old woman still refers to men and women as "boys and girls" in her lyrics. She does need to grow up and stop the mall-ratting there. I wonder if she may end up being like the Amy Poehler character in Mean Girls when it comes to parenting.
she sounds like dolly parton trying to rap on the pre-chorus of wind it up.
Hey! Watch your mouth! Don't you defame Dolly that way, Weezy F!
Gwen-
Don't sing. I don't need your reasons. Don't tell me, 'cause it hurts. No no no.
-World.
That cover design is so weak. In the EW issue with her on the cover, she mentions that her look was inspired by Tony Montana's coke whore wife in Scarface.
Good role model Gwen. Keep cranking it out so your loser husband can be the richest slacker in the world.
He's an actor with a capital A now, Rooster.
Yeah, but would you want to hear her belt out "I'm Just a Girl" at 37? That would be worse.
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