Gwen Stefani is back, and this time she’s handed us a Bouquet, a collection of ‘70s pop-rock gems with a Nashville twist that feels like a breath of fresh air. Her fifth solo album, Bouquet is Stefani’s first major release since 2017’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas. It’s a nostalgic, delightful album brimming with melody and sentiment, inspired by Stefani’s own reflections and the songs that played through her childhood, complete with a flower motif that recurs in song titles like “Marigolds” and “Empty Vase.”

Bouquet kicks off with “Somebody Else’s,” a song that merges Stefani’s signature pop style with the heartland rock feel her fans have come to expect from her Nashville side. The song, with its bittersweet lyrics - “I don't know what a woman like me was doing with a man like you” - grapples with past heartbreak while embracing a new chapter. It plants the seeds for an album filled with themes of love and self-discovery.

Stefani revealed that she began the project back in 2020, sparked by jotting down lyrics on her phone, a habit that would lead her to new inspiration amid a pandemic and a world in flux. “Bouquet,” she shares, “is a tribute to all the stuff I listened to in the station wagon on the way to church,” nodding to her No Doubt roots with ska and reggae-infused touches. Tracks like “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” and “Slow Clap,” which first appeared in 2020 and 2021, pay homage to her early sound, while a yacht rock vibe carries the rest of the album, full of warm ‘70s radio echoes.

Bouquet marks a return to pop for Stefani, but it also does more than just that. Despite the cowboy hat she rocks on the cover, Stefani insists that Bouquet isn’t country. Instead, it’s her own spin on classic pop-rock, influenced by her life with husband Blake Shelton. Their duet, “Purple Irises,” closes the album, a love song about finding each other after past heartbreaks, a fitting finale to Stefani’s lyrical journey through love and personal growth. Stefani calls Bouquet a project born of “healing [and] transitioning,” and it’s clear the album is a labor of love, something Stefani created in “concentrated bursts” between family life and school runs, proof that inspiration often blooms in the quiet, everyday spaces.