As any Gwen Stefani fan worth their salt will know, there is not but one “Gwen Stefani”. There is pink-haired No Doubt Stefani, in a ska-punk band with her brother; debuting solo artist Stefani with her aged-quite-badly fixation on Harajuku; The Voice USA era Gwen Stefani, fully honed in her Adult Contemporary pop career and blondeness; and lastly, there is late-era GS, married to Blake Shelton and dabbling in country.
But this is not her final form! Stefani has released a smattering of singles throughout the 2020s so far – “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” (reggae, deliberately No Doubt-esque), “Slow Clap” (uncategorizable, source of Twitter memes, lyrics veering maybe slightly too far into the playful – “walk into the room like a boss / putting on a little extra sauce”). As is inevitable with female musicians of her ilk, Stefani risked a life of Twitter demeaning and cries of ‘irrelevance’ with this run of camp-if-not-critically-lauded singles.
That is, until “Somebody Else’s” – the lead single for her upcoming fifth studio album “Bouquet”. Marking a departure from what could be speculated as a failed rebrand, the single is brutal and brilliant. Leaning more soft rock in genre, it lyrically details an unhealthy relationship and the singer’s newfound freedom outside of it. There’s some Gen Z therapy talk buzzwords – “narcissistic / semi-psychotic”, “you gaslit my world / it was burnin’”.
Accused of “careerist” pop, it is hard to consider the current incarnation of Stefani outside of her ultra-celeb marriage to Blake Shelton and newfound status on one of the US’ most-viewed reality competition TV series. However, simply put, there is too much effort and enthusiasm here for that to be the case.
“Gwen Stefani” by Enzo Molinari is licensed under CC BY 2.0.