Gwen Stefani struggles to find her ‘Truth’ on first solo album in 10 years

In the chorus of her debut solo single “What You Waiting For?” (2004), singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani rhetorically asks the listener, “What you waiting / What you waiting / What you waiting / What you waiting / What you waiting for?” Well Ms. Stefani, what have you been waiting for?

With more than a decade passing since the release of said single and the multi-platinum certified “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.” (2004),Stefani’s extended absence from the pop music scene has the left the California native’s solo career in limbo. After achieving astonishing success in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s as the frontwoman of the ska band No Doubt, Stefani chose to strike out on her own while the band went on hiatus, producing the insanely popular singles “Hollaback Girl” (2005)” and “The Sweet Escape”(2006). Despite her flourishing solo effort, Stefani took a break from the music scene for a few years and eventually embarked on a short-lived reunion with No Doubt (see 2012’s highly underrated “Push and Shove”).

Due to such a rather long period of inactivity, Stefani’s career remained stuck in the early 2000s with her sophomore effort “The Sweet Escape” (2006). Yet 2014 saw Stefani attempt to make a comeback with the release of the tepid single “Baby Don’t Lie” and the downright embarrassing album “Spark the Fire,” which sadly, was produced by “Hollaback Girl” collaborator Pharrell Williams.However, Stefani’s life was turned upside down last year following a very public and nasty split with then-husband Gavin Rossdale.

“Last February, I think a lot of people know that my life fell apart," she told NPR’s Rachel Martin in a March 13 interview. "My family fell apart. Everything fell apart. And there was a moment where I was talking to my girlfriend and I felt quite embarrassed. And I just felt like, God, I got to — somehow I got to turn this around. Like, I can't go down like this. I just knew that I needed to turn to music, and that's what this whole record documents is working through it, like, having faith and, like, believing in myself and wanting to do something about it.”

After a nearly a decade of waiting, Stefani’s long-awaited third solo album, released March 18, is finally here. Titled “This Is What the Truth Feels Like" and conceived in only a matter of months, Stefani’s breakup record features producers J.R. Rotem, Mattman & Robin and Greg Kurstin and writers Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, who co-wrote Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” (2015) and Selena Gomez’s “Hands To Myself” (2015). By drawing upon the strength of her newfound collaborators, Stefani largely succeeds in forging a new musical direction for herself, with her comeback record pivoting between her attempts to move past her painful breakup and revel her new relationship with fellow “The Voice” (2011-present) judge Blake Shelton.

The first half of “This Is What the Truth Feels Like” contains the album’s strongest material and signifies a huge departure from the hip-hop sounds Stefani explored her in early solo work. “Misery,” the album’s opening track, is a rather deceptive song because it sounds nothing like the title suggests it might; instead, the funky synth tuneis an upbeat anthem about finding new romance rather than despairing over lost love. The fantastic “Make Me Like You,” fourth on the track listing, continues to explore a more disco-pop sound and sees Stefani taking on a sassy, pouty demeanor, especially when she sings “Hey, wait a minute / No, you can't do this to me / Hey, wait a minute / No, that's not fair.”

Unfortunately, Stefani’s comeback album really takes a nose dive in quality over the course of its second half. “Send Me a Picture” is an extremely boring ode to sexting that fails to draw upon tropical house music . “Asking 4 It” features a stale verse from hip-hop star Fetty Wap and a beat that is dreadfully outdated. “Red Flag” and “Naughty” border on the unlistenable with Stefani poorly choosing to emote in a rather tasteless speak-sing manner.

Despite this rather bad string of songs, lead single “Used to Love You” reminds the listener why Stefani has been such a durable star three decades into her career. Recalling the melodrama of the classic No Doubt single “Don’t Speak” (1995), the electropop ballad features a devastated Stefani questioning her past relationship with her ex as she sings “I don't know why I cry / But I think it's cause I remembered for the first time / Since I hated you / That I used to love you.” In short, the song perfectly sums up the dilemma of “This Is What the Truth Feels Like;” while the album features some incredible highs, it ultimately falls victim to moments of inauthenticity and reductiveness that inhibit the record from becoming a landmark breakup album.