Gwen Stefani's second solo attempt, The Sweet Escape, is not exactly what it claims to be; the album may be an escape, but the often repetitive lyrics, overused background music and Stefani's effort to rap make this escape mostly sour.
Escape begins and unfortunately ends with ""Wind It Up,"" Stefani's current single. Although the song has gained popularity, it is probably the most annoying song ever written with its yodeling, yelling and sampling of ""The Sound of Music."" Unfortunately, this is not even the worst song on the album.
The worst and most ridiculous song can be spotted simply from its title: ""Yummy."" Stefani speaks the song Fergie-style, and while the chorus is half-sung, it is comprised of bizarre lyrics such as: ""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."" The tune and the strange factory noises at the end sound like something out of ""Willy Wonka,"" and not in a good way.
Another song with unique lyrics is ""Don't Get It Twisted."" Stefani begins the song with: ""Don't get it twisted / Don't get clever / This is the most craziest shit ever."" The tune sounds like a song from the circus, and the way it gets stuck in your head is similar to watching a tight-rope walker plummet to his death: something you never want to see or hear ever again.
Along with this song, a few others are extremely repetitive such as ""Now That You Got It,"" ""Orange County Girl"" and ""Breakin' Up."" While ""Now That You Got It"" is more fun to listen to, at least the first few times, the other two songs simply repeat Stefani's less than impressive vocals over and over again.
Although some of her songs may be painful to listen to, a few of them step outside of the ""fun"" circus theme and are actually fairly good songs. ""Wonderful Life,"" ""U Started It"" and ""4 In The Morning"" are all set apart from the rest of the album and sound like Stefani did in her days of No Doubt: not caring about what other people think of her and flaunting her individual style, not shoving it in the audience's faces.
The one song truly worth listening to is ""The Sweet Escape."" The song, featuring Akon, is the only one worth listening to multiple times with the knowledge you will not get sick of it too soon. It is upbeat, catchy and easy to sing along to, and it does not try to be funny or showcase ridiculous lyrics.
While the album isn't a complete failure, more was expected of the talented Stefani and the Neptunes, who produced some of the album's songs. In fact, all of the annoying, repetitive songs were produced by them. Despite these shortcomings, the album is certainly worth listening to, if not to enjoy the few truly good songs then to laugh at the ridiculous lyrics and unique style Stefani maintains.
