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Track Listings
| 1. Wind It Up |
| 2. The Sweet Escape |
| 3. Orange County Girl |
| 4. Early Winter |
| 5. Now That You Got It |
| 6. 4 In The Morning |
| 7. Yummy Album Version (Explicit) |
| 8. Fluorescent |
| 9. Breakin' Up |
| 10. Don't Get It Twisted Album Version (Explicit) |
| 11. U Started It |
| 12. Wonderful Life |
| 13. Wind It Up Live Version |
| 14. Orange County Girl |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Gwen Stefani's second solo album, The Sweet Escape, finds the sassy blonde starlet moving even farther away from her ska-punk No Doubt origins. This time around, as apparent from the album cover alone, the focus is clearly on bling, not swing. Which would explain why her collaborators on The Sweet Escape are practically a who's-who of contemporary urban music producers: Akon (who also guests on the title track), Nellee Hooper and, of course, The Neptunes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's The Neptunes, with their playful pop sensibilities, who are responsible for some of the catchiest tracks here--"Orange County Girl", which is a SoCal version of "Jenny From the Block", the sultry and sparse "Yummy" (which features vocals by Pharrell) and the Sound of Music sampling first single "Wind It Up". The lesser known Swizz Beatz, meanwhile, have somehow produced Stefani's most Neptunes-sounding track with "Now That You Got It". The most surprising track, considering the source, is "Early Winter", a straightforward rock ballad produced not by her longtime No Doubt collaborator Tony Kamal, but by slick R&B specialist Hooper. Fans looking for a return to Stefani's indie roots may find this album a bit of a shock, but The Sweet Escape should find a home in both dancefloors and the pop charts. --Ted Kord
Review
Everyone's favourite hollaback girl is back! Gwen's second solo album, Sweet Escape opens with 'Wind it Up', sampling the Sound of Music's 'Lonely Goat Herd', singing about being a girl, and exactly why boys adore them. Suddenly you realise you've missed having Ms Stefani in your life.
A mistress of the synthetic sound, with lyrics that allude to smart girlie conversations over a cuppa, Gwen's taken all the big hitters, ranging from Nellee Hooper to Keane's Tim Rice-Oakley to contribute. She's mixed them all up, soaking up trends that ensure she's played in all the gyms and Topshops nationwide, but she's not letting anyone take over. She's big enough for all of them.
Topics span apologising for being grumpy ('The Sweet Escape') men who lie, making her cry (the Cardigans-esque 'Early Winter'), and being an unremarkable small town girl, a la J Lo ('Orange County girl'). As with her first album there are a few bland fillers, and she seems to lose her way a bit with 'Breakin' up', a track about frustrating mobile conversations, but there's enough trademark majorette drumming to carry the album off. 'Yummy' sums her up, coquettish, amusing, annoying and hip wiggling in equal measure. All this and a new baby. Not bad. --Lucy Davies
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unexpected, but grows a charm!,
By andymx (Amsterdam, NL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sweet Escape (Audio CD)
Being overly excited when Gwen's new album landed in my hands, I was slightly thrown off and surprised that I did not take to it immediately. As I am truly a fan of L.A.M.B., liking every song on the album, I expected the same of The Sweet Escape. Skipping through her latest offering, I only heard a few songs which I thought to be really good...but that was 1 month ago...now that I have taken the time to listen to and appreciate The Sweet Escape...IT'S A GREAT ALBUM - GO GWEN!!!!...(with 1 or 2 exceptions though)
1.Wind It Up: 6/10 Hardly the best track on the album...if you want to enjoy this track, be sure to check out the Harajuku Lovers Live DVD where she performs the track live, with less yodel! 2.The Sweet Escape: 9/10 An amazingly catchy tune...great fun, great sound. 3.Orange County Girl: 8/10 Another track already performed on Harajuku Lovers Live, a meaningful walk down her memory lane with great lyrics and cool smooth sound. 4.Early Winter: 10/10 Some say it's out of place, I say it just adds to the great variety on the album. An excellent track, beautiful melody. 5.Now That You Got It: 9/10 Another fav from the album. Kickin beat...say no more. 6.4 in the Morning: 10/10 Aaargh...too many favs to comment. Yet another smooth track from Gwen. 7.Yummy: ?/10 This one's still growing on me, but it definately has that something about it...very original. 8.Fluorescent: 7/10 A wicked track with good chart potential. Bring it on as a single! 9.Breakin Up: 6/10 A bit of a harsh track compared to the rest, good production values. 10.Don't Get it Twisted: 6/10 A bit of a weird one compared to the rest. Not a fav at all... 11.U Started It: 8/10 Definately one of the better tracks. Nice beat, cut in by an even better melodic chorus. 12. Wonderful Life: 10/10 This track rocks...the few which don't cut it in my book should have had Wondeful Life's beautiful haunting, electro beat. I'm totally offended by all the negative reviews on this album which don't look further than the first single from the album (Wind It Up). I am surprised at the choice of first single, but bring on the second single from the album (The Sweet Escape) and the reliable public will bring this great mix bag of tunes to it's much deserved pedastool.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why so negative???,
By
This review is from: The Sweet Escape (Audio CD)
Oh my GOD! I was so surprised to read all these negative reviews!
For me, this is not "A" Gwen Stefani album, this is "THE" Gwen Stefani album. Yeah, OK, so she's only done two so far, but this album is more grown up that L.A.M.B, she's totally moved away from those pesky and somewhat ANNOYING Harajuku Girls (yes, it's cool to hear about them in one or two songs, but in three and then a track DEDICATED to them??) and she's been off and had the one thing she's desired the most - a baby... there is a definite sound of the good old No Doubt days here too... Wind It Up - first single. When I first heard it, I was like - what on earth?! But acutally, it grows on you, yeah it's a bit of light-hearted "fluff" but nah, I like it, it's a good song, and great use of a sample! 8/10 The Sweet Escape - well first off, it features Akon... not that you hear him much... but it is catchy, a... very... odd video too, I'm not too sure what's going on there, but it's nice and light and breezy. 9/10 Orange County Girl - maybe a bit too humble, but it's nice, remembering her roots, saying "I may be rich and famous, but I'm still just a simple girl at heart." I know that swearing isn't cool, or clever, but great use of the F word in one of the verses - and I love the reference to her having Pharrell on the album "flew down to meet 'P' made a hurricane in Miami. Workin' with him I'm gonna get myself another grammy..." 10/10 Early Winter - this has got to be a single, it's great!! Apparently, I think it's this track, one of the guys working on it said to her she could change bits if she wanted, but she didn't cos she thought it was great as it was - and I do too! 8/10 Now That You Got It - OK, someone reviewed this and said this was great. Personally I don't see it, I think it has some good elements in it, some of the lyrics are really creative, my fave lines have got to be "(Yo Gwen whatcha make 'em do?) Well I'd train him like a marine corps. Boot camp, make him like a superhero (yes ma'am) That always better be his response, or I don't give a dog a bone A-TTENTION!" and "The award is a purple heart, it could be yours. If you earn that medal, yeah you could be my boy ..." It's not great, but it is kinda catchy... 6/10 4 In The Morning - What can I say... the beginning reminds me a little of Nelly Furtado's "Te Busque..." this is rumoured to be her next single, and I gotta say, it's a damn good song. 9/10 Yummy - 10/10... it needs no real write up! It is definitely the 'Hollaback Girl' of "The Sweet Escape," it's catchy, it's light-hearted... it's a bit of a feel good song, I gotta say when I'm feeling sexy in myself I love listening to Yummy cos it's full of attitude and I'm there, and I'm like "I'm feelin' Yummy head to toe - you see me..." and references to her life "I know you been waiting [for her new album] but I've been off makin' babies [her new son] and like a chef makin' donuts and pastries [LOVE that line!] it's time to make you sweat. Sex and sugar is the flavour - ovens, and beaters, and graters, beats made of bongos and sugar - it's time to make you sweat [again, BRIL line!]" I could ramble on for ages - EXCELLENT track =D Fluorescent - It seems a little reminiscent to me of ND... it's a good track though... it's not the best, in my book, but it's still a pretty good track. 7/10 Breakin' Up - Again, this was rated quite poorly. I mean, it's not the best, but I think it's nice - very representative of modern day life and values "I hate it when the signal drops on my cell phone..." it's just genius to write a song that looks at modern culture and society today... kinda catchy "hold up I think we're breakin' up... tell me can you hear me now, tell me can you hear me now..." 5/10 Don't Get It Twisted - don't get clever, this is the craziest **** EVER! Again, nice that she's writing about her life "28 days a normal cycle, if I'm not mistaken I think you might have made it..." "Pete can you go and get a test..." talking about her finding out she was pregnant... it's catchy and I do like it, it does get a little repetitive and boring after a while, but it's still pretty good! 7/10 U Started It - Uh... not sure really! A little NDish, but not the best track by any means on the album. 4/10 Wonderful Life - OMG! It just makes me think of S.K.O.L... it's just nice, ballady, and... it's just a really good track - as I said at the beginning, this is THE Gwen Stefani album, and it's tracks like these that make it so - 10/10 All in all, this has got to be in my Top 5 albums of 2007 =D Gwen Stefani - you are a genius!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Sweet Musical Escape,
By ricochet2099 (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sweet Escape (Clean) (Audio CD)
I enjoyed this album a lot.
Being a longtime fan of No Doubt and Gwen I was looking forward to this album, but I had my doubts after hearing Wind It Up for the first time because it's a Love it or Hate it kind of song, and thought the rest of the album would be similiar. But you know what? Wind It Up really works as the first song and the more I hear it the more it's growing on me, and is on a par with the last albums Hollaback Girl as something completely ridiculous that actually works Like her last album it has a mix of different music genres on here Orange County Girl is also a great song with references to her previous album "Love Angel Music Baby" songs The most memorable songs are Wind It Up, The Sweet Escape, 4 In The Morning, Fluorescent and U Started It
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