No one has ever loved dress-up quite like Gwen Stefani. As the frontwoman of the pop-ska-punk band No Doubt, she was a day-glo Debbie Harry, sporting bindis, adult braces and layers of concert sweat. Once she went solo, she was a David LaChapelle portrait come to life – a hyper-real yodeller and pop queen who rapped about bananas alongside a troupe of giggling Japanese back-up dancers whose inclusion raised more than a few eyebrows. Today she’s an apolitical country-pop torch singer, vintage Vivienne Westwood corsets slipped into her music videos like Easter eggs riffing on her past. Her transformations have been seamless, as natural as slipping on a new skin. Perhaps because one thing has stayed consistent the whole time: her ability to write about heartbreak better than anyone.
“Somebody Else’s”, the first track from Stefani’s new album Bouquet – which is released on Friday – finds her celebrating the fact that she’s no longer pining. “Leaving you saved me, my god,” she sings. “Look at me blossom/ You’re somebody else’s problem.” What a difference 28 years makes. Back in 1996, Stefani cemented herself as pop’s patron saint of tears. No Doubt’s inaugural smash “Don’t Speak” – an angry yet devastated mid-tempo ballad about losing your best friend and lover – transformed the group into a late-Nineties phenomenon. In its video, Stefani is three different versions of herself: an anarchic rock star on stage, a glamorous solo act with diamonds around her neck and a band that resents her, and a wounded young woman whose only hope of recovery is pouring her heart out. It topped the UK charts for three weeks, an instant classic.
