“This album is surprisingly different than the last one,” said Gwen Stefani, on The Sweet Escape’s UK website. Before fans start getting all hyped up about her sophomore solo album, we have to take her words quite literally.

Stefani made her musical debut as a singer songwriter in 1992 with her 4-piece band No Doubt. From their humble underground ska beginnings, they stormed into the rock scene with their immensely successful 3rd album, Tragic Kingdom. It was nominated for multiple Grammy awards, and everyone got to know the band’s gamine front woman.

Although many have bunched Stefani with the female lead singers of Blondie and Garbage, Stefani’s set herself apart as one versatile A-list rock chic. Still between being the creator of her fashion line L.A.M.B, a wife to Bush’s guitarist Gavin Rossdale, and a mother to a 7-month-old boy Kingston, she should probably be forgiven for this sloppy shot at a record.

Firstly, it’s surprising that after weaving her edgy vibes into genres like ska, punk, rock, and even Japanese inspired electro pop, this high fashion rock princess failed to make this second solo effort magical.

The Sweet Escape falls short of keeping listeners hooked to the upcoming tracks unlike her first album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby where delightfully simple choruses and upbeat tracks easily found their way into clubs and the mellower ones like “Cool” climbed steadily up radio charts.

Aside from the painfully uninteresting down tempo tracks, The Sweet Escape is not all bad. Evidently from the album’s single “Wind it up”, Stefani has a slight memory of the “Hollerback Girl” in her. Along with infectious tracks like “Yummy” and the title track (which starts off with Akon lending his vocals to a quirky “Woo-hoo Yee-hoo”), hardcore fans who bought this album in support of Stefani can still jiggle.

In “Don’t Get It Twisted”, Stefani tries out her rapping skills. Without catchy rhymes and a beat to groove to, however, it’s hardly a rap at all. I’d consider it as her attempt to say a whole bunch of lyrics really quickly.

Stefani leaves us with a self-indulgent track at the end, titled “Wonderful Life”. “Our time meant so much to me, now you can’t be found.” It had great lyrics, which underlined how much she misses her past relationship, sadly, like the rest of the album, it failed to catch your ear till the last beat of the song.

No music fan could have missed the numerous collaborations with prominent musicians like The Neptunes, Akon, Tony Kanal (Stefani’s ex-boyfriend from No Doubt), Keane‘s Tim-Rice Oxley and Pharrell. Having the entire album co-produced by big players of music places this record competitively with R&B newcomers Jo Jo and Ciara’s debut attempts. Come to think of it, it is quite sad, actually, given her previous successes.

I think it’s time for little Kingston to give his mummy a spanking for straying so far away from her originally funky roots. After this album, it’s no doubt that fans will agree that Stefani should quickly return to what she does best – glamour rock with a dash of girly pop.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars