Released on 04/12/06
Label: Interscope

Most surprising pop news story in recent weeks: Gwen Stefani plans to ditch the solo career and return to No Doubt. Why? There's no tail between her platformed, mile-long legs, no egg on her alabaster face. "The Sweet Escape" shows the trick she pulled off on quadruple-platinum debut album "Love Angel Music Baby" was no one-off. She sounds so eager to start things up again here, you can hear the leash straining. "I know you've been waiting / But I've been off making babies / And like a chef making donuts and pastries / It's time to make you sweat," she informs us early on in characteristically earthy-and-bonkers fashion.

We want Gwen, not the stadium ska pop of her alma mater. She has years of solo fun ahead of her yet. Indeed, this could actually be a better album than its predecessor. With Pharrell Williams and The Neptunes, and Nellee Hooper on board there's the expected repertoire of futuristic clubby sounds, rapping, Timberlakeisms, street-talk and lusty "hurgh"s - all showcased in twitchy opening track "Wind It Up", characterised by a low, echoey bass beat flapping slowly about beneath the surface like a sinister manta ray. In parts, cheekily, it sounds like Black Eyed Peas ripping off Gwen Stefani - but is rapidly air-lifted out of Fergie's territory by an inspired blast of "The Lonely Goatherd" from "The Sound Of Music" (there'll be a burst of Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado" later too, which ought to get those Harajuku girls jumping).

Lead single "The Sweet Escape" produced by (and featuring Akon) has a distinct Chairman Of The Board feel about it that screams "1970!". We soon reach the heart of the album, the autobiographical "Orange County Girl", a down-tempo ballad in which, with a slight catch in her throat, Gwen talks with disarming honesty about her transition from OC schoolgirl ("Sellin' make-up at the mall / Makin' out to 'Purple Rain'") to her current life "in an extraordinary world". On power-ballad "Early Winter" she sounds like Nina Persson. And if you think she sounds a bit like Keane, too, then that's because that band's co-founder and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley co-writes.

It's not all perfect. "In The Morning" written with old squeeze Tony Kanal is dreary, mushy Savage Garden-type stuff which suggests her repertoire-filtering system may need a reboot. What's indisputable, however, is that Stefani is one of the most wilful and talented musicians in pop. She's not afraid to sound weird, or even ugly. There is barely a note here that did not require a degree of bravery and chutzpah. "Gonna get myself another Grammy" she declares on "Orange County". You heard it here first.

    by Anna Britten