Gwen Stefani – “Slow Clap”
Back in December, Gwen Stefani returned with her first bit of new music in a while. Though she released This Is What The Truth Feels Like in 2016 and a Christmas album in 2017, most people probably associate her with The Voice when it comes to her work during the past decade. Accordingly, her new single was called “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” — a direct acknowledgment of her return to making music, a new era, a new sound that also gets back to the core of who she is as an artist. It was the first taste of a forthcoming album. While we don’t have any more details on that quite yet, what we do have today is another new Stefani track.
This one’s called “Slow Clap.” While “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” found Stefani digging back into her reggae-inspired roots, “Slow Clap” almost feels like her returning to play with a left-of-center strain of pop. The first time you hear it, you could almost wonder whether Charli XCX had written something with Stefani. (In reality, Stefani wrote it with co-writers that she worked with for “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” as well.) While that means “Slow Clap” might sound like Stefani’s spin on some of the younger popstars of our time, it also plays like a reminder that those artists owe a lot to the groundwork Stefani laid all through the ’90s.
“Slow Clap” is a light, fun track — and it’s infectious enough that it’ll likely get stuck in your head after one or two listens. Check it out below.