Wind It Up by Gwen Stefani

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Wind It Up by Gwen Stefani

Topped the NZ chart: for 2 weeks from 25 December 2006.

Gwen Stefani was already an established star before she went solo. She sang for California ska-punk band No Doubt, fronting hits like ‘Don’t Speak’ and ‘Just a Girl’. Her solo career started strongly with 2004’s ‘Hollaback Girl’.

‘Wind It Up’ was the lead single for her second album, The Sweet Escape. It’s credited to Stefani, Pharrell Williams, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II. The latter two are included due to the interpolation of ‘The Lonely Goatherd’ from The Sound of Music.

‘Wind It Up’ is a bizarre mishmash – like Stefani and Williams throwing a whole lot of ideas at the wall. There’s yodelling, a minimalist beat from the Neptunes, incoherent lyrics about the objectification of women, a disregard for vocal melody, and shouts of “wind it up”. The beat holds the disparate elements together better than you might expect, but it’s still incoherent and irritating. It’s similar in feel to ‘Hollaback Girl’, but doesn’t work nearly as well.

Stefani’s career has been a lot quieter since 2006 – not unusual for a pop/rock artist after their first decade. She released a new solo record, Bouquet, a couple of weeks ago (15 November 2024). It’s only her second non-Christmas solo album since The Sweet Escape.

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• NZ #1 hits
• 2000s album reviews

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