album Gwen Stefani - 'Bouquet'

[tost1]

On 11/20/2024 at 9:06 PM, poki said:

Love Gwen's new hairstyle, there's a similar one in Sims 4 I use all the time. 

I don't know why but this has me dead 

[BeBeMint]

10 hours ago, Flochjan said:

"Bouquet" did not enter the official album charts in the UK and in Germany. It is her first album to fail entering these charts. In the US "Bouquet" is predicted to chart outside of the top 20... 

 

That's quite a downfall since she reached #1 in the USA with the "Truth" album. 

What did she expect? She has MANY fanbases: none of them are into her country music. None.

[livelikemusic]

Took me a bit to get into this project, but it's better than I expected it to be.

[NoAngelus]

This album is just there... All songs sound the same, same production, same lyrics... What a shame this is the album we ended up getting and not the one from 2020/21. It's also  massive shame this will probably end up being her last album. 

[ImpressMeMuch]

34 minutes ago, NoAngelus said:

This album is just there... All songs sound the same, same production, same lyrics... What a shame this is the album we ended up getting and not the one from 2020/21. It's also  massive shame this will probably end up being her last album. 

Source - your ass. The interviews around this say well otherwise. 

 

And, the 20-21 album wasn't really shaping up well. The leaks point to a very monotonous samey feel to all songs, LMRIM was well above the other cuts in quality. 

[NoAngelus]

42 minutes ago, ImpressMeMuch said:

Source - your ass. The interviews around this say well otherwise. 

 

And, the 20-21 album wasn't really shaping up well. The leaks point to a very monotonous samey feel to all songs, LMRIM was well above the other cuts in quality. 

Both 2014 and 2021  albums were scrapped because singles flopped not because of quality, she associates success with quality. If leaks showed anything it's that it was great music and much more Gwen and exciting than Bucket. 

 

So when she sees this album miss top 50 in US I don't think she's gonna bother anymore. 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 07:44 PM by NoAngelus

[ImpressMeMuch]

12 minutes ago, NoAngelus said:

Both 2014 and 2021  albums were scrapped because singles flopped not because of quality, she associates success with quality. If leaks showed anything it's that it was great music and much more Gwen and exciting than Bucket. 

 

So when she sees this album miss top 50 in US I don't think she's gonna bother anymore. 

 

 

 

2014 she explicitly didn't move forward with because she didn't want to sing 'other people's songs' 

 

I'm so sick was so good tho 

 

I wish she did a 2 part album. "Anaheim Hillbillies" literally. Disk 1 Bouquet "who I am today", Disk 2  "LMRIM"  ~ "who I am at heart" 

Edited Saturday at 07:58 PM by ImpressMeMuch

[GwennyGwenGwen]

59 minutes ago, NoAngelus said:

Both 2014 and 2021  albums were scrapped because singles flopped not because of quality, she associates success with quality. If leaks showed anything it's that it was great music and much more Gwen and exciting than Bucket. 

 

So when she sees this album miss top 50 in US I don't think she's gonna bother anymore. 

 

 

 

I know this is a common belief, but i think it's a wholesale misunderstanding of Gwen Stefani. If this were true...why would she re-record a mostly Cirkut produced classic Gwen sounding pop album, into an AC country tinged album (without her labels support). 

SHE didn't scrap the 2021 album (she very clearly at the time said "i'll put it out whenever they let me!")...and she's never said it wasn't quality...in fact she's said the opposite, that there were a lot of great songs, and that she might release some of them at some point. What she has said is that even the "people around her" (the label) didn't have any interest in putting them out (because i assume Interscope saw the Slow Clap reaction, and thought it could actually hurt her legacy and hurt the way they actually make money off of her)..and that it felt like she was chasing herself and her past...which tbh, it did...i LOVE Rearview, and a really like a couple of the other songs, but most of the songs did feel like a producers take on what people want from Gwen Stefani. Do i think that the label, the GP, not loving the songs she put out made her insecure? Sure, she is very insecure and very open about it...but when she loves something, she loves it. Her favorite album she's ever made is her Christmas album...not LAMB, not Tragic Kingdom lol...and she truly does seem to love Bouquet, and i think she's at a place where she has given up on commercial success (which she should, cause literally no woman her age in the US has it with new music). It's a hard process for pretty much every major pop star when they hit that point...and Gwen survived commercially viable longer than the vast majority of her peers...but i think she's made the transition, and i actually think we'll get more music from her in the next 10 years than the past 10 years because that pressure is off.

Edited Saturday at 08:44 PM by GwennyGwenGwen

[Saint James]

1 hour ago, GwennyGwenGwen said:

It's a hard process for pretty much every major pop star when they hit that point...and Gwen survived commercially viable longer than the vast majority of her peers...but i think she's made the transition, and i actually think we'll get more music from her in the next 10 years than the past 10 years because that pressure is off.

i hope she does because this album has shown her songwriting talent to me in a way that i didn't see before. she needs a more supportive team around her, similar to what Shania and Kylie have. it seems like Gwen genuinely doesn't know that there's so many people out there waiting to buy her albums and see her on tour etc (even if the numbers don't look that good). and it has nothing to do with genre!

[Flochjan]

22 minutes ago, Saint James said:

she needs a more supportive team around her

This! She always seems to insecure about her own music, she needs people that boost her confidence. I remember a story from 2014 when she wasn't sure if she should even record new music and then Pharrell said to her "Do you know who you are?! You're Gwen Stefani!". 

 

Sometimes I feel like Interscope don't really know what to do with her. 

[Nefertiti0]

 

[Flochjan]

42 minutes ago, Nefertiti0 said:

 

Oh dear this is... wow... I feel so bad for her. Like the genre or not, but it is a solid effort and a good album and it deserved better. 

 

I guess they should've better worked on new No Doubt music to capitalize from the short lived hype surrounding their Coachella reuinion.

[poki]

On 11/18/2024 at 5:19 PM, GwennyGwenGwen said:

Any expectations on what first week sales might look like? I was kind of worried it might be a Nelly Furtado situation (zero shade, i love her, and quite like 7...obviously quality has zero correlation to commercial success!)...but i'm slightly more optimistic now lol...the 2 cd and 2 different vinyl varieties they were selling on her online store are sold out, the cd is sold out on walmart.com, it's been fluctuating between #5 and #6 on iTunes, and she's done a decent amount of promo release week (after doing almost zero up until now)...i'm optimistically thinking the 20k range is possible? But idk, she's gonna get absolutely nothing from streaming lol.

2024 first week US sales for women that could be considered her "peers" albums:

 

Shakira - 33k
JLo - 21k
Kylie - 12k
Sia - 9k
Sheryl Crow - 4k
Nelly Furtado - >4k

Mary J Blige also released an album this week, and will be an interesting direct comparison.
 

 

Gwen about to outdo Kylie, Sia, Sheryl and Nelly so not too bad so there's that at least. 

[poki]

Title track will pass 500k streams soon (483k atm). Maybe this could make some noise if it gets pushed?

 

We got some reviews:

https://www.metacritic.com/music/bouquet/gwen-stefani

 

60 MC (1 high score, 4 mid scores). Basically they're mad it's not another rehash of LAMB. 

 

We stan Brendan Sharp of Clash Music tho! 

https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/gwen-stefani-bouquet/

[NoAngelus]

Not #95, I'm so sad for her, we're never getting new music, but honestly it's her fault, so many false starts, she became very insecure in her own craft because she follows success, fans moved on. 

[Flochjan]

If there's anything to learn from this, then it's that country is obviously not the right path for her. 

[LewisK]

I'm glad with whatever makes her happy, and I hope Bouquet did.

 

But honestly True Babe sounded much more exciting to me. A flop as well, but I'm here for rock-Gwen, country is not for me.

[Truth Teller]

13k is more than I expected at this point. Artists of Gwen's generation rely solely on their fanbase buying multiple copies and Gwen's fanbase, which is not huge anyway, was simply not interested in this project.

 

I'm not sure why though. I feel like this is unfairly dismissed as a country album. Outside of 2-3 songs, the rest sound like pop songs with country tinges and instrumentation, just like Chappel, Sabrina and many others are doing. It's not fresh like LAMB but neither was TTWTFL, so... I don't get the disdain. Maybe she shouldn't have worn a hat

[rebeltwat]

I don't think anyone should be surprised at this, of course the album was going to flop The album is cute for what it is and has a few standouts.  I do prefer her trying something new and what feels natural for her at this stage in her life than continuously trying to make the music she thinks her fans want her to make (as we saw with pretty much everything since Baby Don't Lie). LMRIM was fun but using self-references in both song and music video theme is such an easy go-to as a legacy artist when you aren't otherwise inspired and I wouldn't be surprised if whatever album was shelved in 2021 would've suffered from the exact same complaints from fans TIWTTFL did. Bouquet may or may not be her last album, but that has nothing to do with its performance. Her priority is on her family, it has been for awhile, and that's very very normal. That critic that said she finally has the life she's always sung about wanting to have truly said it best. 

[Flochjan]

1 hour ago, Truth Teller said:

I feel like this is unfairly dismissed as a country album. Outside of 2-3 songs, the rest sound like pop songs with country tinges and instrumentation, just like Chappel, Sabrina and many others are doing. It's not fresh like LAMB but neither was TTWTFL, so... I don't get the disdain. Maybe she shouldn't have worn a hat

I know Gwen keeps calling it "70s yacht rock", but that's really not what it is... She tried to mask it, but people aren't stupid. 

 

The whole album was produced by a country producer in Nashville, it features Blake Shelton and shows Gwen wearing a cowboy hat on the cover... There are even lyrics about "driving trucks" and dressing like a "country girl". 

 

Maybe she didn't plan to go fully "country" with this album, but I can't blame people for seeing this project that way.

[Truth Teller]

22 minutes ago, Flochjan said:

I know Gwen keeps calling it "70s yacht rock", but that's really not what it is... She tried to mask it, but people aren't stupid. 

 

The whole album was produced by a country producer in Nashville, it features Blake Shelton and shows Gwen wearing a cowboy hat on the cover... There are even lyrics about "driving trucks" and dressing like a "country girl". 

 

Maybe she didn't plan to go fully "country" with this album, but I can't blame people for seeing this project that way.

And Purple Irises is lowkey the poppiest song on the album  

 

The album may have been produced by a country producer, but there are zero country writers on it. Cirkut & Madison Love, Kasher, Jack&Coke, Mark Landon, Ilsey Juber, Diane Warren. All pop writers. I'm not exactly sure what the background is here (I've seen some members here say there are "poppier" versions of all the songs but she countrified them with her executive producer?), but the songs are not country. It's a pop album with some country instrumentation, some lyrics about trucks and her wearing a hat. I feel like if she packaged it in a more neutral way, like TTIWTFL, no one would feel that alienated. But I'm honestly not entirely sure what she was even going for, genre-wise and image-wise. And it's a shame cause about half of it is kind of her best material since Push and Shove

[Galaxy]

The fact that some album tracks are still below 100K streams