Oh My God, You Can Change!
Gwen Stefani “Luxurious” – It’s probably not a coincidence that every negative review of Love Angel Music Baby that I’ve read has been written by a man. Though they never come out and actually say it, I think that the major problem that people have with this record is that it is intensely girly in a way that most people are conditioned to distrust. The music itself is a rockist’s nightmare; a collection of bright, shiny songs produced by big name producers, heavy on slow jams and dance pop. The album’s lyrics are fixated on money, high fashion, and the accoutrements of vast wealth to a degree rarely found outside of hip hop and contemporary r&b.
In other words, Gwen Stefani is playing the Veronica/Cordelia Chase role, whereas most music critics (who are predominately dorky whitebread Archie/Xander Harris types) would very much prefer their pop stars to be more like Betty or Willow Rosenberg – outwardly insecure, working class, girl-next-door types who are non-threatening, nerdy, and maybe just a little bit gay. Invariably, we are led to think of the Cordys and the Veronicas of the world as being nothing more than vain and shallow, and we write off their assertive, forthright nature as being just a by-product of their flaws. Ultimately we dislike the Cordy/Veronica type not because of their faults but for how they make us feel – insecure, inadequate, emasculated. We fear their judgement, so we shut them out of our lives as a preemptive strike.
The thing is, if you pay attention to the lyrics on the album, and on “Luxurious” in particular, it’s pretty clear that Gwen is a Willow/Betty type in Cordy/Veronica drag. She may be seduced by luxury and couture, but she never seems as though she feels entitled to those things. This record is just as much about high-end living as it is about the work ethic required for working class girls to attain (and maintain) that privilege. There’s a lot of rationalization going on here – she justifies this lifestyle as being the “payback” for “working so hard.” She has to convince herself that she deserves this. This is a song about wealth from the perspective of someone who is accutely aware of the price of everything in the room.
It’s notable that “Luxurious” has the audacity to be built around a sample from the Isley Brothers’ “Between The Sheets,” the basis for the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa,” a song which has become musical shorthand for nouveau-riche pop star decadence. The ubiquity of the sample is not an accident – she’s deliberately using both of those songs as a reference point, almost as though they are the soundtrack to her song rather than the accompaniment.
Honestly, I’m not sure why I’m so surprised by a lot of the negative reaction to this album. I’m pretty familiar with the biases of most critics, and this record seems as though it was designed to aggravate most of them. I’m most amused by David Browne’s review in Entertainment Weekly, in which he compares the album to a “magalog you can dance to” (yeah, cos fashion is for yucky girls and dancing is ewwww gross) and launches into a bizarre diatribe against the 80s:
Each extravagant, overstuffed track feels as if it had been conceived as a mega-budget music video, not a song. How appropriate, since expensive videos were hallmarks of the ’80s and the album is intented to salute the music of Stefani’s Reagan-era youth.
Say what? Has this man watched MTV, VH1, Fuse, or BET at all in the past twenty years? Seriously, all you need to do is switch back and forth between one of those channels and VH1 Classic for a half hour, and you know that this man is either severely out of touch or on the pipe.
Love luxuriates in a moment when pop and big money fed off each other. Yet that mentality has never seemed more obsolete and self-absorbed than it does now. In a time of war, economic ills, and general anxiety, it’s easy to see the appeal in re-creating a simpler era.
Again, what the huh? Seriously, what kind of shut-in would say something like that now? It’s especially baffling that this comment would come from Entertainment Weekly of all places, since that magazine is so focused on addressing the broad spectrum of contemporary pop culture. It blows my mind that anyone wouldn’t recognize that if there was a time that pop and big money fed off of one another, it’s now more than ever. It’s plainly not a past tense sort of thing! It’s also a strange thing to say that the 80s were a simple(r) time, or to suggest that it’s at all inappropriate for extremely escapist pop art to become common and popular during a time of social turmoil. Anyone with even a little bit of historical perspective would notice that trend going back over a hundred years. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
Travis Morrison “Change” – Poor Travis Morrison. The dude goes out and makes the best record of his career by a million miles (let’s face it, the Dismemberment Plan weren’t that hot aside from “A Life Of Possibilities,” “Memory Machine,” “Sentimental Man,” and “Ellen & Ben”), and he ends up stuck with the typical “how dare you break up my favorite indie rock band and go solo!” backlash and a 0.0 review from Pitchfork. But really, any 0.0 review from Pitchfork should be worn as a badge of honor – if you can inspire that kind of reactionary bile from the indie orthodoxy, you clearly must be doing something interesting. In Morrison’s case, he a) got poppier b) got funnier and c) became more political without becoming strident or abstract. His lyrics have a conversational, personal-essay quality which I find very entertaining and engaging (it almost seems like a good blog set to music), but I suspect that is the root of most of the haters’ disdain.
The common complaint about Travistan is that it’s indulgent, but I don’t think that’s really the problem. It’s more that these songs aren’t necessarily intended to last forever – many of them are highly specific, and no doubt, this record will sound very dated in a decade or so. But who cares? Too many people are hung up on music being timeless, when the records which belong to a specific time and place end up being more fascinating down the road. Music is not like consumer goods. You might buy a washing machine with the hope that it will last for a very long time, but it’s misguided to think that art should be the same way. Art and music is all about communication and pleasure, and it’s important to accept that those things can be very ephemeral. That said, these songs aren’t going to stop being catchy. Most of the ideas and opinions expressed of this record aren’t ever going to stop being valid. “Change” is never going to stop being good advice. (Click here to buy it from Insound.)
Also: Maxi Geil is playing a show tonight at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan. Highly recommended. It’s only $10 at the door, so if you don’t have plans, you really ought to come out for this.
