Home > New York Music > CD Review > Gavin Rossdale, 'Wanderlust'

Backstory: In the mid-‘90s, Gavin Rossdale fronted the band Bush, the British answer to American grunge rock outfits like Nirvana and Pearl Jam that made its biggest Stateside rumbles with the sound-alike songs “Glycerine” and “Swallowed.” He’s remained in the public eye as a tabloid fixture thanks to his 2002 marriage to Gwen Stefani, who is currently pregnant with their second child.

Why you should care: If you have an undying love for the grunge sound, or for anything related to Gwen Stefani, this might be interesting.

Verdict: Rossdale has softened up his voice somewhat from his earlier days, so he sounds better and not like he’s trying to imitate Kurt Cobain anymore. But these songs sound stuck in the ‘90s, minus the sort of hooks and impact that catapulted songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or “Jeremy” to the top. Instead, tunes like “Forever May You Run” and “Love Remains the Same” come off as long and weepy, even though they’re under five minutes. The album ends with “This Place Is on Fire,” a bizarre minute of vocoder that’s even more out of place than “Future World,” a thin song actually given more of a retro feel by the use of faux reggae-dub sound effects.

X-Factor: Rossdale also dabbles in the acting world, and has a supporting role in what promises to be a strange movie due out next year. “Frost Flowers” describes a love story with a wrinkle in time: a man from the present gets a deceased woman from the past (played by Holly Hunter) pregnant.

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