Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani

The Sweet Escape

(Polydor)

The Hollaback girl returns with another quirky dance/pop/rap collection to follow her excellent solo debut L.A.M.B., sticking to the same gimmicks and mostly the same production collaborators.

But while the first outing had an element of surprise that made you sit up and listen to the former No Doubt singer's dramatic change in direction, this time around it's a little more predictable.

Sure, there are some catchy songs, including the Euro-pop sounding Early Winter, The Sweet Escape and 4 in the Morning, and decent raps, such as Breakin' Up, but too much of the album is padded with fodder.