The Sweet Escape (Album)

The Sweet Escape is the second studio album by American singer Gwen Stefani, released on December 1, 2006 by Interscope Records. Having originally intended to return to No Doubt after her debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (2004), Stefani decided to record a second album as a way to release some of the material left over from the ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' writing sessions. The album musically resembles its predecessor while exploring more modern pop sounds. It was released to generally mixed reviews from contemporary music critics, receiving criticism for its strong similarities to ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Following the release of her debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., Stefani announced that she had intended to return to No Doubt and record a sixth studio album with the band.[3] After the commercial success of L.A.M.B., she decided to release several leftover tracks from the album as an EP or as extra tracks on a DVD.[4] However, Pharrell Williams, with whom she had collaborated to write "Hollaback Girl", convinced Stefani to create "a L.A.M.B.'' part two",[4] and the two recorded several songs during sessions in Miami in July 2005.[5]

The two produced "Wind It Up", "Orange County Girl", "U Started It", "Yummy", "Breaking Up", and "Candyland" during these sessions, and the songs were used for a fashion show premiering the 2006 collection of Stefani's fashion line L.A.M.B. She included performances of "Wind It Up" and "Orange County Girl" when she embarked on the Harajuku Lovers Tour in October 2005. Stefani put the project on hold in December 2005 when she discovered that she was pregnant,[8] before returning to the studio in August 2006.[9] The album's working title was Candyland, sharing its name with an unreleased track that has only been looped via her fashion show soundtrack. The title was changed to The Sweet Escape, the title of the second track, to emphasize the album's themes of wanting to escape to a better life.

Meaning of The Songs
The Sweet Escape has themes of romantic situations and details of her career and personal life, while sonically the album features "sparsely rhythmic tracks where she chants as much as she sings" and "pop songs that aim for choruses."[15] It starts with "Wind It Up", which features fanfares and samples from The Sound of Music's "The Lonely Goatherd", having "material-minded lyrics touting her fashion line and her shape."[16] The second and title track, "The Sweet Escape", is a dance-pop and doo wop song,[16][17][18] which features Akon that provides a "wee-oh!" hook,[16] with lyrics about a "feisty sort of apology."[17] "Orange County Girl" is an autobiographical rap song,[16] where Stefani shows how she is "grateful for her success while recalling the simpler days of her youth."[19] The album's first ballad, "Early Winter", has influences of 80's soft rock and lyrics about the need for fidelity and transparency in romantic relationship.[19] "Now That You Got It" features military snare drums, loping hip-hop beat and a staccato piano sample.[15][18] Its lyrics has Stefani "act[ing] as if she's doing a lover a favor and challenges him to come through."[19]

The sixth track "4 in the Morning" is a 1980s-inspired synthpop ballad,[20] that lyrically deals with a relationship on the edge,[21] while "Yummy" is a dance song, with a tribal rhythm,[22] cameo by Pharrell Williams and lyrics that finds Stefani declaring that "making babies leaves her eager to feel sexy again."[19] "Fluorescent" features Angelo Moore on saxophone,[23] and was compared to the works of Madonna and Prince,[16] while "Breakin' Up" has influences of hip hop[22] and electronica[1] and it is "a breakup song built on a dying cell phone metaphor."[16] The tenth track, "Don't Get It Twisted", talks about an unexpected pregnancy,[15] in a song influenced by reggaeton.[18][22] "U Started It" was noted for having "lilting melody, silken harmonies, and pizzicato strings",[16] while the final track, "Wonderful Life", was named a Depeche Mode-style synth ballad about how much she misses her first love and how the person had a profound impact on her.

The Sweet Escape Tour
The Sweet Escape Tour was Stefani's follow-up to the Harajuku Lovers Tour. It went worldwide as compared to her previous tour which was constricted only to North America and had more than double the number of shows. It was Stefani's last solo effort as she rejoined her band No Doubt after the tour ended.[46] The main feature were usage of various props such as a prison for Stefani's opening act, a six-piece band and a large multimedia screen in the backdrop showing videos and animations.[47]

The tour had its own set of controversies. A group of students making up for The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, banned Stefani's concert that was slated to take place August 21, 2007 at Putra Indoor Stadiumin Kuala Lumpur. The union's vice president, Abdul Muntaqim, said, "Her performance and her attire are not suitable for our culture. It promotes a certain degree of obscenity and will encourage youth to emulate the western lifestyle. The concert should be stopped." The organizer of the event, Maxis Communications, later responded, "Stefani has confirmed that her concert will not feature any revealing costumes. She will abide by the Malaysian authorities' guidelines to ensure that her show will not be offensive to local sensitivities."[48] In April 2007, Akon drew criticism for engaging in on-stage dirty dancing with a 14-year-old girl at a club in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, as part of a fake contest.[49][50] As a result, Verizon Wireless terminated its sponsorship of the tour.[51]

Stefani donated $166,000 from her October 30, 2007 concert in San Diego to the San Diego Foundation, in benefit of the victims of the October 2007 California wildfires.[52] On her June 22 and June 23 concerts in Irvine, California, Stefani was joined onstage by her No Doubt bandmates. They performed the band's songs "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", "Sunday Morning", "Hella Good", and their cover of Talk Talk's "It's My Life"