First solo effort leaves some doubt

Gwen Stefani

“Love.Angel.Music.Baby.”

(Interscope)

* 1/2

Welcome to the pop music version of “The Polar Express.” Like that disappointing kids’ movie, which lavished tons of technology on the creation of uninvolving digital tots, the first solo album from No Doubt’s frantic frontwoman is an exercise in pointless artifice.

But what would you expect from a fashion-first rock diva whose vocal signature is an array of hyperactive affectations -- quivers, yelps, gulps and whoops, moans, sighs, purrs and panting? She’s rarely sung a line informed by inner feeling, and on this album (due in stores today), she races away from true emotion like the Road Runner escaping from the coyote.

With producers such as the Neptunes, Dr. Dre, Nellee Hooper and OutKast’s Andre 3000 on board, the music --from synth-happy new wave to hip-hop -- sounds vivid, detailed and forceful, though the overall sound emphasize the music’s glinting, hard surfaces rather than the deeper, softer tex- tures.

That contributes to a lack of sensuality that would be hard for any singer, let alone the brittle Stefani, to overcome. The best her limited bag of tricks can muster is a playful sassiness, which she uses effectively on “Harajuku Girls,” a salute to Japan’s trendy teens.

That subject seems to engage Stefani’s interest, but the album’s lyrics of love, personal growth and empowerment inspire the random vocal approach that has sustained her through the years of No Doubt’s success. She’s so robotic that it comes as a shock when nine songs in, on the Madonna-like “The Real Thing,” she suddenly sounds, well, almost real.

-- Richard Cromelin

Expanding on successful riffs

Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz

“Crunk Juice”

(TVT)

***

The pioneering Atlanta hip-hop trio of Lil Jon, Big Sam and Lil Bo broke through nationally with its fourth album, 2002’s “Kings of Crunk,” thanks to its smash single with the Ying Yang Twins, “Get Low.”

Anchored by Lil Jon’s spare, bone-rattling “crunk” beats, the group’s riotous, infectious music has become one of hip-hop’s most popular sounds. They refine and expand their sound on this album, named after the energy drink Lil Jon endorses.

When the trio is at its best, Jon, Sam and Bo handle the choruses and an occasional verse and let A-List rappers and singers fill in the blanks, as on the gruff “White Meat” with 8 Ball & MJG, the sinister “What U Gon’ Do” with Lil Scrappy and the percolating “Aww Skeet Skeet” with DJ Flexx.

When they partner with Usher and Ludacris on “Lovers and Friends” and R. Kelly and Ludacris on “In Da Club,” Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz show that they can curb their enthusiasm and still deliver rousing records. Lyrically, the group and its guests offer little more than boasts and threats, but it is the intense, satisfying feeling of the music that matters.

-- Soren Baker

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).