Gwen Stefani picks a meager bunch of flowers on ‘Bouquet’
Even in the year of pop acts going country (Beyoncé, Chappell Roan, Post Malone), Gwen Stefani seemed like an unlikely face to join in on the fun. Sure, she married Blake Shelton in 2021, but how could the former No Doubt frontwoman and early aughts pop goddess possibly abandon her brilliant knack for quirky ska gold and creamy-smooth pop magic?
For all of its country boho-chic aesthetic (nevermind the single white flower the singer holds on the LP’s cover despite of the album’s title), Bouquet is a generally even blend of soft rock and pseudo-country jams, tied together with familiar hooks and easygoing instrumentation. In its 10 track entirety, it’s not a bad record, but can’t help but sound hackneyed coming from an artist whose earlier career output seems like a supernova by comparison to this mere dwarf star.
Regardless of an odd video posted to Stefani’s Instagram in which the singer assures that she didn’t actually “go country,” Bouquet is in fact a country-adjacent album at the very least. There might not be steel guitars or banjos taking center stage, but that doesn’t disqualify it from being country-hued pop-rock.
Stefani sounds almost how one could imagine a kid from, say, small-town Wisconsin would appear if he suddenly tried becoming a cowboy out west. His small-town predisposition might allow him to identify with some essence of the west’s humility and hospitality, but in reality, he’s really just a poser trying his best to homogenize in a pool he lacks the natural tendency for. Just because Stefani is now married to who Miranda Lambert once dubbed the “king” of country (while she was married to him) doesn’t quite make her the new queen.
Stefani is no stranger to adopting new aesthetics or identities, so really, country chic shouldn’t come as too much of a shocker. After all, this is the woman who told Allure in 2023 that, “My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it.” In fact, Stefani’s long held commitment to cultural appropriation almost seems like more of a natural progression given her upbringing in the cultural melting pot of SoCal. How is it that she made cosplaying as a chola seem so effortless, yet stepping into the country music sphere seems to be more of an oddball transition?
The album’s title track is a breezy cut filled with corny but not all too cringe-inducing cliché’s that boil her blended family with Shelton down to lines like, “You bring the diamond, I'll bring the promise / You bring the dogs and I'll bring the boys.” Many of the record’s songs can be traced back to the influences of ‘70s Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, with their smooth sonic sailing and honey-voiced delivery. On “Marigolds,” Stefani lets her signature vocal whine ring out over one of the album’s more country-leaning moments. Perhaps the album’s biggest standout is “Late To Bloom,” which starts off with some (once again) cliché wishing that she’d met her hubby when they were younger, but results in a pleasant and straightforward number fit for a drive down the highway on an unseasonably warm fall day. Album closer and Shelton duet “Purple Irises” wraps things up with an earnest and pretty bow — but, of course, not without some schmalz of its own (“It's not 2014 / But you still look good in those jeans”).
Stefani, now in her mid-50s and settled with her new husband on his Oklahoma ranch, can’t quite be expected to deliver the same kind of era-defining hits she did as a rowdy and glittering star she was some 20 years ago. Yet for an album that arrives as the aide to the eight years since 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like, Bouquet can’t help but land as underwhelming. It’s not that the LP is abysmal, it’s just disenchanting that Gwen Stefani is the one trying to sell its message. Good thing she and Shelton have those purple irises back in Oklahoma to tend to.
