Love. Angel. Music. Baby. is the debut solo studio album by American singer
Gwen Stefani, 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, and
soul, 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 eight million copies worldwide.
In 2003, Stefani began recording solo material.[3] She stated she was considering recording singles to be used on soundtracks, continuing her collaborations or releasing an album under the pseudonym "GS".[3][4]Jimmy Iovine (chairman and co-founder of Interscope) convinced Stefani to work on this album.[4] 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.[5]
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.[5][6] Stefani announced the album's release in early 2004,[7] marketing it as a "dance record" and a "guilty pleasure".[1]
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the album, Interscope released a version of the album remastered by
Chris Gehringer on November 22, 2019.[8]
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.[16] The album contains several references to Stefani's clothing line,
L.A.M.B.,[16] and alludes to contemporary fashion designers such as
John Galliano,
Rei Kawakubo, and
Vivienne Westwood.[17] Stefani also released a series of dolls named the "Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Fashion Dolls", designed after the costumes from her tour.[18] Although Stefani intended for the album to be a light dance record, she stated that "no matter what you do, things just come out."[19] 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.[20] The fourth track "
Cool" discusses Stefani's friendship with Kanal after he ended a romantic relationship with her in 1995.[21]
Love. Angel. Music. Baby. introduced the
Harajuku Girls, an entourage of four Japanese women whom Stefani referred to as a figment of her imagination.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24]
The fourth track "
Cool" chronicles Stefani's previous relationship with
Tony Kanal,[19] featuring a new wave and
synth-pop production.[16] The song was compared to
Cyndi Lauper and
Madonna songs from the 1980s.[15][32] "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.[33][34] "
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.[35][36] The seventh track, "Harajuku Girls", is a synth-pop song that was described as a tribute to
Tokyo's street culture,[37] produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.[15]
Stefani embarked on the
Harajuku Lovers Tour on October 16, 2005, to promote Love. Angel. Music. Baby. The tour consisted of only one leg, running for 42 dates across North America, ending on December 21, 2005. The hip hop group
the Black Eyed Peas, rapper
M.I.A., and singer
Ciara accompanied Stefani as opening acts for her tour. The tour was met with varying responses from contemporary critics, who despite praising Stefani's vocals, were critical of other aspects of the show such as its musical material. According to Billboard, the tour grossed $22 million from 37 shows, 20 of which sold out.[45] A video album of the concert titled Harajuku Lovers Live was released on
DVD on December 4, 2006.[46] Additionally, a remix
EP titled Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (The Remixes) was released on November 22, 2005, including remixes of "Luxurious", "Cool", "Hollaback Girl", and "What You Waiting For?".[47]
Singles
"
What You Waiting For?" was released as the lead single from Love. Angel. Music. Baby. on September 28, 2004. The single peaked at number 47 on the
Billboard Hot 100,[48] and was commercially successful overseas, topping the chart in Australia and reaching the top 10 in several countries including France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.[49][50] "
Rich Girl", featuring Eve, was released as the album's second single on December 14, 2004, becoming Stefani's first top-10 entry as a solo artist in the US when it peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.[48] Elsewhere, the song performed equally as successfully as "What You Waiting For?".[51] "
Hollaback Girl" was released as the third single on March 15, 2005. It became the album's best-selling and most popular single, while also becoming the first single to sell one million
digital copies in the US.[26][52] The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 within six weeks of its release, earning Stefani her first number-one single on the chart.[48]
"
Cool" was released as the fourth single from the album on July 5, 2005.[53] The song fared moderately on the charts, reaching the top 10 in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the top 20 in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the UK and the US.[48][50][54] "
Luxurious" was released as the fifth single on October 11, 2005.[55] The single version features rapper
Slim Thug.[36] The song was less successful than the previous singles from the album, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.[48] "
Crash" was not originally planned as a single, but due to Stefani's pregnancy, her second solo album was delayed,[56] and the song was released as the sixth and final single from the album on January 24, 2006.[57]
Love. Angel. Music. Baby. received generally positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 71, based on 22 reviews.[58]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
AllMusic called the album "intermittently exciting and embarrassing", concluding that it is "stranger and often more entertaining than nearly any other mainstream pop album of 2004."[23] Jennifer Nine of
Yahoo! Music praised the album as "the hottest, coolest, best-dressed pop album of the year" and found it to be "sleek, shimmery, and dripping with all-killer-no-
filler musical bling".[64]Stylus Magazine's Charles Merwin opined that Stefani was a contender to fill Madonna's role, "[b]ut not enough to get seriously excited about her as the next great solo female careerist."[24] Lisa Haines of
BBC Music was more emphatic, stating that Stefani rivaled Madonna and
Kelis, while dubbing the album a "stunning and stylish effort that showcases Gwen's credentials as a bonafide pop goddess."[41]
Despite stating that Stefani "shamelessly plunders" 1980s music,
Krissi Murison of the NME referred to the album as "one of the most frivolously brilliant slabs of shiny retro-pop anyone's had the chuzpah to release all year."[60] John Murphy of musicOMH found the album "enjoyable, if patchy", but commented that it was too long.[65]Rolling Stone's
Rob Sheffield described the album as "an irresistible party: trashy, hedonistic and deeply weird."[62] The magazine later placed the album at number 39 on its list of the top 50 albums of 2004.[66]Robert Christgau gave the album a three-star honorable mention () and wrote, "Turns out the problem wasn't ska per se—it was No Doubt."[67]Edna Gundersen of USA Today called the album "[f]un, fizzy, frivolous", while noting that Stefani's "caffeinated electro-pop amounts to little more than sly channeling of Lisa Lisa at a disco revival."[63] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times viewed it as a "clever and sometimes enticing solo debut that doesn't quite add up."[68]
The album was generally criticized for its large number of collaborations and producers. The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan argued that although "others lend a hand [...] it's very much Stefani's show"; however, most others disagreed.[59] Jason Damas of PopMatters compared the album to a second
No Doubt greatest hits album,[15] and
Pitchfork's Nick Sylvester felt that the large number of collaborators result in sacrificing Stefani's identity on the album.[44] Most reviewers held that the collaborations prevented the album from having a solidified sound. Eric Greenwood wrote for Drawer B that "Stefani tries to be all things to all people here", but that the result "comes off as manipulative and contrived."[69]Entertainment Weekly's
David Browne shared this opinion, stating that the album "is like one of those
au courant retail magazines that resembles a catalog more than an old-fashioned collection of, say, articles."[16]
Many reviewers focused on the album's light lyrical themes. Entertainment Weekly called the references to Stefani's clothing line "shameless" and stated that "each song becomes akin to a pricey retro fashion blurb",[16] and Pitchfork quipped that "the
Joker's free-money parade through
Gotham City was a much more entertaining display of wealth, and he had Prince, not just
Wendy & Lisa."[44] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine commented that the album's "fashion fetish [...] gives the album a sense of thematic cohesiveness", but the "obsession with Harajuku girls borders on maniacal".[14]The Guardian disagreed with this perspective, arguing that "her affinity with
Japanese pop culture [...] yields a synthetic sheen [...] that works well with the other point of reference, hip-hop."[59]
Love. Angel. Music. Baby. debuted at number seven on the
Billboard 200, selling 309,000 copies in its first week.[74] On the issue dated June 18, 2005, the album climbed to a new peak position of number five with 83,000 copies sold.[75] The
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album quintuple platinum in March 2021,[76] and had sold four million copies by May 2009.[77]
The album had similar success in Europe. After entering the
UK Albums Chart at number 14 with sales of 45,484 copies,[78]Love. Angel. Music. Baby. peaked at number four in its 25th week on the chart, on May 15, 2005, selling 21,271 copies.[79] The album was certified triple platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on September 16, 2005,[80] and had sold 1,068,242 copies in the United Kingdom as of March 2016.[81] The album was listed as the 20th best-selling album of 2005 in the UK.[82] It also reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, and the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland.[83][84] The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) certified the album platinum in May 2005, denoting sales in excess of one million copies across Europe.[85]
In Australia, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. topped the
ARIA Albums Chart for two consecutive weeks in February 2005 and spent 56 weeks on the chart.[86] It ended 2005 as the fourth-best-selling album[87] and was certified quadruple platinum by the
Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 280,000 copies.[88] The album peaked at number three for two non-consecutive weeks on the
Canadian Albums Chart,[89] and was certified five-times platinum by the
Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in April 2006 for sales of over half a million copies.[90] As of April 2016, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. had sold over eight million copies worldwide,[91] and became the 12th best-selling album globally of 2005.[92]
Impact
The success of the album's
urban contemporary-oriented songs in the
adult contemporary market allowed for the success of other artists while Stefani was pregnant and later recording The Sweet Escape.
Nelly Furtado's third album Loose was released in June 2006 and was primarily produced by and written with
hip hop producersTimbaland and
Danja. Furtado's reinvention from a
worldbeat singer-songwriter was to Stefani's previous forays into urban contemporary music.[93] In his review of Loose, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone stated that Timbaland aimed to "produce an omnipop multiformat blockbuster in the style of [Love. Angel. Music. Baby.]—but without Gwen."[94] The
Black Eyed Peas member
Fergie released her solo debut album The Dutchess in September 2006. The cholas that accompanied Fergie in some of her music videos were viewed as derivatives of the Harajuku Girls and Stefani's "Luxurious" music video.[95] The album's lead single "
London Bridge" was paralleled to "Hollaback Girl" and the third single "
Glamorous" to "Luxurious".[96] Fergie refuted accusations of piggybacking on Stefani's music, stating that "this is all so ridiculous [...] The Peas and I make music we love, and for others to speculate is their problem."[95]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.