Gwen Stefani's Time Isn't Up yet

"Take a chance you stupid ho," No Doubt crooner Gwen Stefani repeats in "What You Waiting For?," the lead single from her premier solo excursion Love. Angel. Music. Baby. As the clock ticked and tocked Stefani, "still a super hot female," unnervingly yet willingly employed time as her minion (in addition to 4 supposed Harajuku Girls) and delivered one of 2005's greatest accomplishments.

Spawning hits such as the nonchalant "Cool" and imaginative Fiddler on the Roof-influenced "Rich Girl," Gwen was living luxuriously, "Like Egyptian cotton" (whatever that means). However, nothing eclipsed the successfulness of the controversial marvel "Hollaback Girl." Produced by The Neptunes, the song flaunted a hip-hop beat cross-bred with a marching band trumpet line and the trademark phrase, "This shit is bananas/ B-A-N-A-N-A-S."

After the immense prosperity of Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Gwen took a minor hiatus from the music scene, relaxing somewhere high on a hill in an ornately decorated cottage, surrounded by husband Gavin Rossdale, baby Kingston, and a lonely goatherd watching The Sound of Music. Who knew that a goatherd and Julie Andrews' yodeling would motivate Stefani, "still a super hot female," to once again enslave time and her Harajuku Girls as she unlocked the door to her own personal Garden of Eden, or as she calls it The Sweet Escape.

Using her master key to extract a sample from The Sound of Music, Gwen and partner-in-crime Pharrell Williams drag Julie Andrews to the clubs to "find out why all the boys stare" in her first single "Wind It Up." Pharrell continues to excrete danceable tunes with "Orange County Girl" (a.k.a. "Hollaback Girl" Pt. II); "U Started It," Stefani's own Christmas Story; and "Breakin' Up," a song describing Stefani's struggles with bad reception over a ride-or-die beat meant for a rapper with harsher vocals and a similar lack of lyrical content. "Let me check my itinerary," Stefani brags before continuing to give listeners a taste of her Chocolate Factory in the album-highlight "Yummy." Illustrating her and Pharrell's hit-making superpowers Stefani boasts, "I been off making babies/ and like a chef making donuts and pastries/ It's time to make you sweat."

"If I could escape and recreate a place that's my own world," Gwen dreamingly beguiles on the title track The Sweet Escape. Constructing a world that gives tourists a more potent high than cocaine, the unlikely pair, Stefani and Akon, put the Partridge Family to shame with their happy-go-lucky cries and squealing trumpets.

Gwen whips out her master key once more to use the 80s as a muse for "Wonderful Life," co-written by legend Linda Perry, and "Early Winter," a joint effort with Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley. "Fluorescent" lights shine as No Doubt's Tony Kanal and Gwen reunite for a couple of flashbacks that sound like B-Sides to Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

"Perfect, get it right/ Never wrong," Gwen exclaims in the Swizz Beatz production "Now That You Got It," while alarms sound proclaiming her larger-than-life prescence. With just as much sass and rump-shaking bass as Beyonce's "Check on It" combined with its commercial lyrics, the song is sure to be a future party anthem as well as marketing goldmine for Stefani.

Even though Stefani began her career with an unsteady foot, this modern-day Wonder Woman is fully confident now, sporting self-confident lyrics and some of today's best producers and writers all while raising a young baby Kingston. This once "stupid ho" took a chance and though her "key is still tick tocking," her time in the spotlight has only just begun.