By Eileen Fortner, Contributor 

[Interscope Records; 2024]

Rating: 3/10

These days several mainstream artists in the music industry are having fun and trying out different genres. Dolly Parton tested the waters as a new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with her new Rockstar album, Beyonce recently released her COWBOY CARTER album and it was a hit. Now Gwen Stefani has announced the release of her new album, Bouquet, which is set to come out on November 15, and it seems the rock/pop star is going to take a stab at country music.  

Stefani just released the first single of Bouquet titled “Somebody Else’s,” and let’s just say there is a lot to unpack here. 

I think we need to start with the more technical things, this song has one of the worst guitar uses that I have heard in a hot minute. You hear this guitar for about 30 seconds and then it just simply disappears on you. Later in the song, we get a bit of a guitar that is mediocre at best and again, it’s gone before you can even catch it! Maybe the drums are what clouds the guitar, but whatever it is kind of stops this from being a country song. “Somebody Else’s” includes the classic Stefani autotune and it still works but not as a country song that’s for sure. 

If we’re going to call this a country song, it’s got the classic topic of the genre. The toxic old ex that I’m sure all of us have. Let’s get one thing straight, the lyrics of this song are very strong with a lot of meaning, but at that point, it’s just a poem without any kind of music behind it. But the lyrics are all anyone seems to want to talk about, not the fact that the drums overpower the guitar and any guitar part is virtually non-existent. Somehow the chorus of this song is the only part that seems to have just a little bit of that country music sound, although the verses of this song are not too horrible and almost save the song. 

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I truly hope that this song is not a full reflection of the rest of the new album. And if it is, Gwen- get in that studio to make a redemption song! This song reminds me of something that would be played at the end of a random new Disney movie during the rolling of credits and people start to love it because it ironically reminds them of the movie. Gwen Stefani is one of the best and most influential 90s female artists with her work in No Doubt. Stefani even went on to become the pop princess of the 2000s. There is no doubt (no pun intended) in my mind that she could still pull this off, with one bad song on an album. 

One of the biggest things that didn’t work for this song to reach that country style was the inability to fully lean into the country sound. Give me that slide guitar and a sick banjo riff in the back! Gwen Stefani has the full potential to pull off anything she truly wanted to, if she leaned into it hard enough. Hopefully the remainder of the album is full out Gwen like the world already knows. 

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/track/23MKdzfnkrDggafK7JWOHj?si=63cdbbb8585d4a48