If the trippy album cover and stuttering album title are any indicators, it's that Gwen Stefani's new status as a dance-pop queen is here to stay. Even better, she's managed to snag the Harajuku girls from Japan to accompany her on her quest. Actually, the song titles are dead giveaways of her new-found sound: "Rich Girl", "Hollaback Girl", "Cool", "Luxurious" for starters. All of this, along with her hypersexualized (and cutely disturbing) music video for lead single "What You Waiting For?", and it's not hard to tell that "Love. Angel. Music. Baby" is too club-centric, too heavy on electronica to have been released at any other time in Gwen's career, let alone with her back-up band No Doubt. With all of the activity happening on the surface--ranging from a chorus built around "Take a chance, you stupid ho" to teaching us how to spell bananas in the standout Neptunes track "Hollaback Girl"--there really isn't that much more to discuss. For some odd reason, however, Gwen felt the need to add the morose, macabre closer "Long Way to Go", which features Martin Luther King Jr. samples and quite frankly ruins what's otherwise a whirlwind of sexual innuendo and a hodge-podge of fashion in frothy dance-pop.
What this ultimately proves is that while Gwen's passion is to lead the clubs, it doesn't mean that she's always successful. Most often, she far more impresses with what she plans to achieve rather than what she accomplishes--see "Harajuku Girls", which tries desperately to pay homage to Gwen's new style heroes, but comes up short, stumbling over its clumsy Japanese asides and lack of a catchy hook. So unfortunately for us, Gwen's 'state-of-the-art' is not hip, trying ever so hard to set new trends like Madonna or Kylie, but with the hearty roster of collaborators here, she covers far too much ground to do justice to any movement in its entirety. So why is "L.A.M.B" such a fantastic record? Basically it comes down to this: while every song here can induce a withering cringe, more than not, it's intentional. Gwen fully knows that creating a whole song around a car metaphor in "Crash" is silly, while her shallow ode to wealth "Luxurious" has her not taking things too seriously, and it opens the album up, inviting the listener into its celebration of skimming club culture and celebrity lifestyle. Other than this, her genuine moments of love and affection are indeed quite moving, such as the new wave high school anthem "Cool", or the album's best track "The Real Thing", which boasts a perfect 80s production also in the new wave vein (this isn't a coincidence: while she may be foraying into dance now, Gwen's heart will always be in her new-wave ska roots of the last century). Besides the truly awful closing track, this record is about as poppy as pop albums come in 2004. That's not to say that it's as consistently entertaining as, let's say "Breakaway", but it also provides more fun music than that record, or any record of the year. After given the dark lust of "Confessions" and the harsh confrontations of "Encore", it's refreshing to see at least one artist having some fun.
Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. What You Waiting For? 2. Rich Girl 3. Hollaback Girl
4. Cool 5.
Bubble Pop Electric 6.
Luxurious
7. Harajuku
Girls 8. Crash 9.
The Real Thing
10. Serious 11. Danger Zone 12. Long Way to Go
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