Even after delivering the one two punch of Tragic Kingdom and Return Of Saturn, No Doubt showed that they still had their best album ahead of them when they released 2001's phenomenal Rock Steady. Through her charismatic style, trend setting fashion, and her just plain sexy persona, lead singer Gwen Stefani has proven time and time again that she is quickly becoming one of music's primary stars. It seems that the world is her oyster at the moment, and almost anything is possible for her. She's even portraying Jean Harlow in Martin Scorcese's upcoming Howard Hughes bio pic The Aviator starring Leonardo Dicaprio. It's not surprising then that Stefani has chosen now at the height of her popularity to try and cash-in big with a solo record. Sadly though, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. wasn't the best vehicle for her to get behind. Lost in a sea of overproduction, and songwriting that is, at times, embarrassingly bad, this album simply suffers from too many cooks in the kitchen, and not enough good material to work with.

Love. Angel. Music. Baby. starts out promising enough. "What You Waiting For," with Nellie Hooper's awesome production touch, and Linda Perry's sprinkles of star-making songwriting, is an absolute riot and is one of the strongest singles, if not the best single of 2004. The next track, "Rich Girl" featuring Eve and production from Dr. Dre is also pretty strong. Its' clever take on Fiddler On The Roof's "If I Was A Rich Man" is its strongpoint, and all parties, Dre included, sound like their having a blast.

After those two tracks though, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. for the most part is all downhill. "Hollaback Girl" has got to be the worst Neptunes produced track of all time, and "Crash" is painful to sit though with lines such as "I wander 'round the room and I'm getting things ready, I picture you driving just like Mario Andretti." Is no treat either. "Crash" is one of three tracks to feature production by No Doubt bass player Tony Kanal, and they're all garbage. The usually reliable Nellie Hooper even drops the ball a few times as well. "The Real Thing" has got to be the worst New Order rip off I've heard in quite some time. Not even Andre 3000 from Outkast can succeed here. He produces two tracks, one as himself ("Long Way To Go") and one as his alias Johnny Vulture ("Bubble Pop Electric") and fails on both counts. The song "Harajuku Girls" is one of many here that seems to be pandering to Japanese sub-cultures (so does the title of the album) which is fine I guess, but it leaves many other listeners wondering just what the hell Stefani is singing about most of the time.

I guess the biggest complaint I have against Love. Angel. Music. Baby. is its lack of any cohesion whatsoever. This isn't an album; it's a collection of singles thrown together on a single disc featuring Stefani and a bunch of puppeteering string pullers. Too bad Stefani didn't have the common sense to do this album herself, she could have saved herself millions in producer fees, and I'm sure come up with something far better and more original. Hopefully there's a new No Doubt album around the corner, because Stefani has shown here she's not quite ready for the solo life.