Gavin Rossdale: Wanderlust - Review

POPJOURNALISM.CA | Gavin Rossdale, Wanderlust
ack in ‘94, the alt-rock group Bush were on top of the world, but the band fell apart when rap-rock (remember Korn and Limp Bizkit?) took over the airwaves. Sadly, the only reason why people now even remember Rossdale is his marriage to pop queen Gwen Stefani. With his solo debut, Wanderlust, he is hoping to change that by hiring one of alternative rock’s most in-demand producers, Bob Rock. Unfortunately, Rock dishes out what he does best: processed, stale guitars, auto-tuned vocals, and ambiance plastered over anything that resembles a real instrument. Another major problem is that Rossdale doesn’t serve up any memorable stadium rock anthems; his strained musings about life in the fast lane and yearning ballads of love torn apart by distance fail to connect and end up as a muddle of clichés. Wanderlust is another predictable rock record not trying to push any boundaries, but striving to stay relevant and failing on all levels.