Album Review: Bouquet by Gwen Stefani

In the late '90s and early 2000s, she lit up music videos and red carpets, electrocuting or killing her former bandmates with a steely gaze in "It's My Life", writing scorching self-indictments on "What You Waiting For?" or offering spelling lessons on the stomping "Hollaback Girl. " The fairytale romance of "Cool", the laidback sex of "Luxurious", the bizarro Sound of Music interpolation on "Wind It Up" - that shit was bananas, even if it came with some now-unsavory bouts of cultural appropriation with her Harajuku obsession. Once the music scene's It Girl, she's shied away in recent years, releasing only the simple but effective break-up record This Is What The Truth Feels Like in 2016, a Christmas album, and a terrible track with Saweetie that gets made fun of for sounding like it belongs in a Kohl's commercial.

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Just a [Country] Girl Clearly, the rickety pop-goes-country bandwagon is still cantering along, mercilessly trampling underhoof any inquisitive onlooker before they can earnestly enquire, 'why though?'. Now, just when the miasma of dust and cowpats left in the wake of Cowboy Carter's five-horse team seems to be clearing, a new challenger approaches… and if nothing else, it's certainly an interesting change of pace for the former No Doubt singer. Where a lot of the artists who have adopted the braying yeehawisms are planted in firmly in the industry limelight, Stefani had the advantage of minimised expectancy, not to mention the toe-dip of two previous pop-country single releases with husband Blake Shelton.

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Love and marriage are to be celebrated, but on this evidence they don’t make for the world’s most exciting music First things first – no, Gwen Stefani has not ‘done a Beyoncé‘ and ‘gone country’. Despite marrying Blake Shelton, one of the biggest country music stars in the USA, and posing on the cover of Bouquet wearing a cowboy hat, this is not the full on tribute to the Grand Ole Opry that advance publicity would have you believe. Bouquet is Stefani’s first release since 2017’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas, and it comes as something of a shock to realise that the halcyon days of Love Angel Music Baby were no less than 20 years ago.

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Gwen Stefani’s emphatic return with her new solo album’ Bouquet’ released sees a country-inspired vibe from the pop icon. Third track ‘Pretty' has a distinctive country-tinged, rock feel that, according to the singer was inspired by many carefree car journeys soundtracked by classic bands whose timeless sounds she has emulated. The singer's trademark playfulness is epitomised in the gentle word play of the chorus: 'I never felt pretty til you loved me and now I feel pretty pretty lucky'.

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In an episode from the third season of Friends, Monica hooks up with a co-worker, Julio, who writes a poem inspired by their encounter titled "The Empty Vase. " Phoebe interprets the poem as a metaphor for what he really thinks of Monica: "My vessel so empty with nothing inside/Now that I've touched you, you seem emptier still. " Eventually, we learn that "The Empty Vase" isn't about Monica specifically, but all American women.

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