Album Review: Wanderlust by Gavin Rossdale

Scared that his celebrity couldn't sell Institute, his post-Bush post-grunge back to basics band, Gavin Rossdale retreated to his own name for his 2008 solo debut, WANDERlust its very important capitalization unwittingly bringing to mind the spelling of DAUGHTRY, the band -- or perhaps it wasn't so unwitting, as on his own Rossdale pursues a buffed and bland soft grunge designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. It's the first time that Rossdale has so blatantly run for the traditional definition of the middle of the road (never mind that his Langer/Winstanley productions were the textbook definitions of crossover grunge), so the collective shrug that greeted Institute must have terrified him, as he's happily embracing his role as Gwen Stefani's husband, writing songs about his contentedness as a family man as part of a campaign to make this an aural "Celebrities: They're Just Like Us!" Rossdale does dredge up a bit of the old angst on occasion but there is no hunger here, no desire to ramble, which is slightly ironic for an album called WANDERlust. Really, this record has no business bearing this title as this is a remarkably settled music, desperate to be embraced as a soundtrack to the lives of US Weekly readers who recognize Rossdale as the hunk married to Gwen Stefani.

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