Gavin Rossdale Has A Solo Album Out? Who Knew?

If one were to ask me what I think of when the name Gavin Rossdale is mentioned, truth be told, none of it would be good. For starters, his first "claim-to-fame" was being a boy toy to Boy George's much-less-talented hanger-on, Marilyn. Years later, of course, he surfaced as singer of the British grunge band Bush, best known for ruling the charts and airwaves in the early 90's with their multi-platinum debut album, Sixteen Stone.

For a band as successful as Bush were, they were also quite loathed and regarded as musical carpetbaggers, accused of aping Nirvana's sound in an unabashed bid for commercial success. Thus, it was no surprise that the band's next two albums met with critical and commercial disdain. When the band broke up, the world-at-large could be heard breathing a collective sigh of "good riddance".

Since then, of course, Rossdale has been spending most of his time fathering children with No Doubt singer/fashionista Gwen Stefani while trying valiantly to not get lost in her shadow.

In 2005, Mr. Stefani, er, Rossdale emerged with a new band, Institute, and confirmed once-and-for-all that he should never, ever be put in charge of naming a band. To no one's surprise, the band sounded a lot like Bush and, also not surprisingly, failed to set the world on fire.

Fast forward to June 2008 and the release of Gavin Rossdale's debut solo album, WANDERlust.

That I didn't even known about the album's existence until, well, a couple days ago should tell you one thing: what that one thing is, I'm not quite sure.

On its own terms, WANDERlust is an album that tries very hard to be everything to everyone. Bob Rock's production is as amazingly free of any rough-edges, making his work on Nina Gordon's debut solo effort seem positively jagged by comparison. Aside from the obligatory radio ballad (the aforementioned "Love Remains"), there is the very-Bush-sounding "If You're Not With Us You're Against Us" and a couple songs about how tough it is being a dad and, at the same time, keeping up with the Hollywood jet set ("Another Night In The Hills" and "The Skin I'm In").

While one gets the feeling that Gavin will have an Interscope deal for as long as his wife continues to be a major source of profit for the label, I tried to hate this album, believe me, I did. Part of me does, in fact.

But the other part of me knows that there are a lot of people much less jaded than I who are just looking for something, ANYTHING, to embrace as an alternative to the likes of Daughtry, Nickelback, Puddle Of Mudd.

This, more than anything, is an album for them.