In 2015, Gwen Stefani was in the midst of launching her long-awaited third solo album, working with numerous big-name songwriters and producers on the follow-up to her 2007 record 'The Sweet Escape'. She released two official singles with 'Baby Don’t Lie' and 'Spark The Fire' in late 2014, but after a live performance of 'Start A War' early in 2015, she scrapped the album, saying it felt unauthentic. In addition to known song titles 'Ziplock', 'Overdose', and 'Confection', we also know of two songs that Charli XCX wrote for her, which were 'Hard 2 Love' and 'Hell Yeah Baby', and now we finally get to hear Stefani's studio recordings of these elusive tracks. 'Hell Yeah Baby' is full of attitude and a percussive drive, and is the kind of song that follows in the vein of 'Hollaback Girl' and 'Spark The Fire', while 'Hard 2 Love' sounds more like an 80's-inspired romantic ballad. Stefani has said that she enjoyed working with Charli XCX, and out of all the writers out there she likes her style the most, as she comes up with really good melodies. Of the other songs which were shelved, we know that she worked with Pharrell Williams on songs called 'Woah', 'Heart Shape', and 'Carousel' in addition to 'Spark The Fire'. Shakira may have been involved on a track called 'Confection', and although we have a live recording of 'Start A War', we don't know if there is a studio version out there. Although she scrapped her 2014 album, she did return to the studio in 2015, inspired by a personal tragedy when she and husband Gavin Rossdale of the band Bush divorced, and the breakup led to a full album of new songs. 'This Is What The Truth Feels Like' was released in 2016 and included none of the songs from her 2014 sessions, instead featuring songs clearly inspired by her personal life, such as the singles 'Used To Love You', 'Make Me Like You', and 'Misery'. While a number of the songs mentioned above cannot be located, there were three singles released from the sessions, and we have the two Charli XCX tracks, so by adding collaborations with Snoop Dogg and Calvin Harris from the same time-frame, out-takes from 'The Sweet Escape' and 'This Is What The Truth Feels Like', and finally her duet with Jeffery Austin from 'The Voice' TV show, we have an album of songs recorded in 2014/2015 which could have been released as her third album 'Shine' in 2015.
Track listing
01 Hell Yeah Baby
02 Baby Don't Lie
03 Run Away (feat. Snoop Dogg)
04 Show Me
05 Candyland
06 Shine (feat. Pharrell Williams)
07 Hard 2 Love
08 Overdose
09 Together (feat. Calvin Harris)
10 Used To Love You
11 Spark The Fire
12 Leather And Lace (feat. Jeffery Austin)
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