Blogs
  • Go! 3/7-3/9
    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
    04:06AM 03/08/08
  • Your Weekly St. Louis Food Blog Digest
    03:45PM 03/07/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
    06:08PM 11/09/07
Recent Articles

Recent Articles By Annie Zaleski

  • Sleep State
    8 p.m. Saturday, February 9. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue.
  • Soft
    9 p.m. Tuesday, February 12. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Lloyd Dobler Effect
    9 p.m. Monday, January 14. Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Career (Remix)
    The trials and tribulations of R. Kelly.
  • The Aviation Club
    9 p.m. Friday, January 4. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

Gwen Stefani is still pushing the limits of ridiculousness on The Sweet Escape; after all, it takes a person quite secure in her self-confidence to bring back yodeling as a viable chorus hook. But the aforementioned von Trapp-fest ("Wind It Up") is actually the worst song on her second solo effort, a flamboyant sore thumb on an otherwise excellent disc whose tunes genre-skip nimbly from '80s synthpop to modern hip-hop to two-tone ska. What's most striking, though, is that Escape's variety is an asset rather than a liability — and that Stefani finally sounds comfortable enough in her pop-chameleon skin to rely on songcraft over shtick. There's "Early Winter," a longing breakup song with light piano flurries that resembles Aimee Mann's 'Til Tuesday salad days; "4 in the Morning," whose sleight-of-hand trip-hop gives off vibes of early-'90s girl-group R&B; and even "Wonderful Life," where iced keyboards and Stefani's gothic-chanteuse vocals scream Violator-era Depeche Mode. The No Doubt vocalist isn't quite as successful when she acts like a hip-hop bulldog (the embarrassing "Breakin' Up") — but that's mainly because her unself-conscious sense of fun and adventure, coupled with Technicolor tunes, are her real strengths.

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