Scared that his celebrity couldn't sell
Institute
, his post-
Bush
post-grunge back to basics band,
Gavin Rossdale
retreated to his own name for his 2008 solo debut,
WANDERlust
its very important capitalization unwittingly bringing to mind the spelling of
DAUGHTRY
, the band -- or perhaps it wasn't so unwitting, as on his own
Rossdale
pursues a buffed and bland soft grunge designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. It's the first time that
has so blatantly run for the traditional definition of the middle of the road (never mind that his
Langer
/
Winstanley
productions were the textbook definitions of crossover grunge), so the collective shrug that greeted
must have terrified him, as he's happily embracing his role as
Gwen Stefani
's husband, writing songs about his contentedness as a family man as part of a campaign to make this an aural "Celebrities: They're Just Like Us!"
does dredge up a bit of the old angst on occasion but there is no hunger here, no desire to ramble, which is slightly ironic for an album called
. Really, this record has no business bearing this title as this is a remarkably settled music, desperate to be embraced as a soundtrack to the lives of
US Weekly
readers who recognize
as the hunk married to
. Now, whether he can get this audience is debatable:
had only two songs in the American Top 30 (
"Comedown"
and
"Glycerine,"
both a good 12, 13 years prior to this record) and the thirtysomething audience he's gunning for either has contempt for
and rather would hear
Feist
, or has moved onto country (or has stopped listening to music altogether). Plus, there's the unavoidable fact that this is the first desperate run at the middle by a musician who has spent his career as a star attempting to prove how hard he is, working with underground guru
Steve Albini
on
's second record and turning to
Helmet
guitarist
Page Hamilton
for
. All that sturm und drang and clatter and clang is forgotten here, as
restyles himself as a post-grunge
Peter Cetera
, crooning slick, smooth ballads, only dipping into his angry side toward the close of the album as he rants against L.A. and government in equal measure, duetting with
Shirley Manson
. It is no small irony that
sounds better in this setting than he does in his harder rock -- he's a better vocalist and more charismatic than most of the dullards who followed in his wake -- but this is still deliberately tepid music, more concerned about appearances than hooks or drama. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine