Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

* Standard
* Deluxe
* Anniversary

### Producers

André 3000, Dallas Austin, Dr. Dre, Nellee Hooper, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Tony Kanal, The Neptunes,

## Album Chronology

### Next

 The Sweet Escape

**Love. Angel. Music. Baby.** is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani. It was released on November 12, 2004, by Interscope Records. Stefani, who had previously released five studio albums as lead singer of the rock band No Doubt, began recording solo material in early 2003. She began working on *Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* as a side project that would become a full album after No Doubt went on hiatus. Stefani co-wrote every song on the album, collaborating with various songwriters and producers including André 3000, Dallas Austin, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the Neptunes and Linda Perry. The album also features guest appearances by Eve and André 3000.

Designed to sound like a 1980s dance record, *Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* was influenced by artists and bands such as the Cure, Lisa Lisa, New Order, Prince, Depeche Mode and Madonna. The album incorporates a diverse range of genres, including electropop, dance-rock, new wave, R&B, hip hop, soul, and disco, while lyrically, it explores themes of fashion, wealth and relationships. Promotion of the album included the release of six commercially successful singles and the North American Harajuku Lovers Tour. While promoting, Stefani was often accompanied by backup dancers called the Harajuku Girls.

*Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, and received a total of six Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year, during the 2006 ceremony. It debuted at number seven on the US *Billboard* 200, selling 309,000 copies in its first week, eventually peaking at number five. The album has received multi-platinum sales certifications in several countries and has sold over seven million copies worldwide.

## Background

During her time with the band No Doubt, Stefani began making solo appearances on albums by artists such as Eve. In the production of its fifth studio album, *Rock Steady* (2001), No Doubt collaborated with Prince, the Neptunes, and David A. Stewart and had Mark "Spike" Stent mixing the album. While the band was on tour to promote the album, Stefani listened to Club Nouveau's 1987 song "Why You Treat Me So Bad" and considered recording material that modernized 1980s music. No Doubt's bassist and her former boyfriend, Tony Kanal, introduced her to music by Prince, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, and Debbie Deb, and they talked about producing songs from Kanal's bedroom.

In 2003, Stefani began recording solo material. She stated she was considering recording singles to be used on soundtracks, continuing her collaborations or releasing an album under the pseudonym "GS". Jimmy Iovine (chairman and co-founder of Interscope) convinced Stefani to work on this album. On the second day of her sessions with Linda Perry, the two wrote a song about Stefani's writer's block and fears about the solo album. This became the track "What You Waiting For?". which was released as the lead single for the album.

When the two began working on a song that Stefani stated was too personal, she left to visit Kanal. He played her a track on which he had been working and which became "Crash", the album's final single. The two tried to write new material, but gave up after two weeks. They did not return to work until six months later, when Stefani began collaborating with other artists, commenting, "If I were to write the chorus of 'Yesterday' by the Beatles, and that's all I wrote, that would be good enough to be part of that history." Stefani resumed work with Linda Perry, who invited Dallas Austin, and many other artists, including Outkast's André 3000, the Neptunes, and Dr. Dre. Stefani announced the album's release in early 2004, marketing it as a "dance record" and a "guilty pleasure".

To commemorate 15 years from the album's release, Interscope released a version of the album remastered by Chris Gehringer.

## Composition

### Music and lyrics

*Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* takes influence from a variety of 1980s genres to the extent that one reviewer commented, "The only significant '80s radio style skipped is the ska punk revival that No Doubt rode to success". The album combines music genres such as electropop, new wave, dance-rock, soul, hip hop, R&B, and disco. Several songs employ synthesizer sounds characteristic of music from the 1980s, drawing comparisons to the Go-Go's and Cyndi Lauper. Stefani cited Club Nouveau, Depeche Mode, Lisa Lisa, Prince, New Order, the Cure, and early Madonna as major influences for the album.

Like pop albums of the 1980s, *Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* focuses primarily on money, with songs such as "Rich Girl" and "Luxurious" that feature descriptions of riches and wealth. The album contains several references to Stefani's clothing line, L.A.M.B., and alludes to contemporary fashion designers such as John Galliano, Rei Kawakubo, and Vivienne Westwood. Stefani also released a series of dolls named the "Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Fashion Dolls", designed after the costumes from her tour. Although Stefani intended for the album to be a light dance record, she stated that "no matter what you do, things just come out." The album's opening track "What You Waiting For?" discusses her desire to be a mother and in 2006, she and her then husband, Bush singer Gavin Rossdale, had a son named Kingston Rossdale. The fourth track "Cool" discusses Stefani's friendship with Kanal after he ended a romantic relationship with her in 1995.

*Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* introduced the Harajuku Girls, an entourage of four Japanese women whom Stefani referred to as a figment of her imagination. The Harajuku Girls are discussed in several of the songs, including one named after and entirely dedicated to them. They appear in most of the music videos produced for the album and those for Stefani's second album *The Sweet Escape* (2006). *Love. Angel. Music. Baby.* includes various styles of music. Many songs are influenced by electro beats designed for club play. Producers Austin and Kanal incorporated R&B into the song "Luxurious" which contains a sample of the Isley Brothers' 1983 single "Between the Sheets". Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporate new jack swing, a fusion genre of R&B that the pair had developed and popularized during the mid-1980s.

### Songs

The album opens with "What You Waiting For?", an electropop, new wave, dance-rock, and funk song. Lyrically, the song discusses Stefani's fears of beginning a solo career. "Rich Girl", a collaboration with rapper Eve, is a dancehall and reggae reworking of the English duo Louchie Lou & Michie One's 1994 song "If I Was a Rich Girl", which itself interpolates the song "If I Were a Rich Man" from the 1964 musical *Fiddler on the Roof*. The Neptunes-produced track "Hollaback Girl" combines 1980s hip hop with dance music. It was written as a response to a derogatory comment that grunge musician Courtney Love made, referring to Stefani as a cheerleader.

The fourth track "Cool" chronicles Stefani's previous relationship with Tony Kanal, featuring a new wave and synth-pop production. The song was compared to Cyndi Lauper and Madonna songs from the 1980s. "Bubble Pop Electric", the fifth track, is an electro song featuring André 3000's alias Johnny Vulture. It tells of the two having sex at a drive-in movie, and it was generally well received by critics, who drew comparisons to the 1978 film *Grease* and its 1982 sequel *Grease 2*. "Luxurious" is a 1990s-inspired R&B song that lyrically talks about the desire to be rich in love, simultaneously comparing Stefani's lover with luxuries. The seventh track, "Harajuku Girls", is a synth-pop song that was described as a tribute to Tokyo's street culture, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

"Crash" is an electroclash song that uses automobile metaphors to describe a relationship. "The Real Thing" was described as a vintage Europop song, and features guest appearances from New Order vocalist Bernard Sumner and bassist Peter Hook. The next track, the synth-pop song "Serious", drew comparisons to Madonna's work during the early 1980s. A music video was produced for the song, but it was never officially released, although a snippet of the video surfaced on YouTube in October 2006. "Danger Zone", an electro-rock song, was widely interpreted to be about Stefani's husband Gavin Rossdale having an illegitimate daughter; however, the song had been written before the discovery. The closing track "Long Way to Go" is an outtake from André 3000's album *The Love Below* (2003). The song discusses interracial dating and uses a sample of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 speech "I Have a Dream".

## The Singles

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6

## **Tracklist**

### *Deluxe Edition*

 14
 15
 16
 17
 18
 19
 20