This Is What the Truth Feels Like

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This Is What the Truth Feels Like is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani. It was released on March 18, 2016, by Interscope Records. Initially, the album was scheduled to be released in December 2014 with Benny Blanco being the executive producer and the songs "Baby Don't Lie" and "Spark the Fire" being released as singles. However, after the underperformance of both songs on the charts and the writer's block Stefani suffered, she scrapped the whole record in favor of starting again.

Inspired by the end of her marriage and the roller coaster of emotions she experienced during the time, Stefani returned to feel inspired and started writing new and meaningful songs. With the help of producers J.R. Rotem, Mattman & Robin and Greg Kurstin, as well as songwriters Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, Stefani wrote the whole album in a few months and described it as a "breakup record", with the songs having a "sarcastic" and dark-humor vibe, as well as being real, joyful, and happy.

The album's official lead single, "Used to Love You", was released on October 20, 2015, to a positive response from critics and a moderate impact on the charts. Its second single, "Make Me Like You", was released on February 12, 2016. It received positive reviews upon its release, and its music video was the first video to be created live during the 2016 Grammy Awards commercial break.

Background and recording

After giving birth to her third son on February 28, 2014, Gwen Stefani made her first public appearance at the 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 12, 2014, performing "Hollaback Girl" at request from her longtime collaborator and friend Pharrell Williams, who was one of the festival's headliners. After the performance, Williams hinted a possible return for the singer, whose last solo studio album was released in 2006. In the same month, she was invited to replace Christina Aguilera as one of the coaches from the TV singing competition The Voice, which also had Williams as one of the coaches. The two started working together, and during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Stefani revealed she was writing new music. In September 2014, she revealed she was writing for two records: her third solo studio album and her band's No Doubt seventh studio album. She stated: "At this point I’m thinking about both, I can do both. [...] And it’s just an amazing time; so many opportunities. I’m going into the studio tonight with Pharrell [Williams], I’m going to be writing and also just seeing what comes along my way. I’ve been recording a few things." In the same month, Stefani's manager Irving Azoff confirmed she was finishing the record with Williams, as well as planning to perform its lead-single during The Voice live shows. Interscope chairman John Janick also revealed that producer Benny Blanco was going to be the album's executive producer and that it was slated to be released sometime in December 2014.

On October 20, 2014, Stefani released "Baby Don't Lie", produced by Blanco and Ryan Tedder, as the album's tentative lead-single. The song was met with a mixed response from critics and a very moderate impact on the charts. Quickly afterwards, on December 1, 2014, "Spark the Fire", produced by Pharrell Williams, was released. However, the song failed to make any impact on the charts, and the album was postponed. In a December 2014 interview for Spin, she revealed she worked with Calvin Harris, Charli XCX, though separately, and Sia for the album, while revealing the desire to work with Chris Martin and Diplo. It was later revealed that the songs written by XCX were called "Hell Yeah Baby" and "Hard 2 Love", while the Sia-penned track was a ballad named "Start a War", which she later premiered during a concert. In January 2015, the singer revealed she decided to slow down the album's recording process since she felt it wasn't done. In May 2015, rapper LunchMoney Lewis told Ryan Seacrest he was working with Stefani on the record.

In August, Stefani and Gavin Rossdale filed for divorce after thirteen years of marriage. On October 19, 2015, during an interview for Entertainment Weekly, Stefani revealed she scrapped the whole album and started again, since "[i]t didn’t feel right. [...] I didn’t feel fulfilled. That record with Benny was done that way because I had just given birth and had just started on The Voice and felt like I should do something in music, but what was I going to do? There wasn’t enough time. So I tried to make a record where I was just kind of involved — which is how a lot of people do it, but it didn’t work for me." During an interview with Zane Lowe, she also revealed she attempted to curate an entire album, but it didn't feel right and she needed to write her own material. She also revealed that she felt inspired again and started writing a lot of songs in a rapid progress, revealing: "I think I have enough for probably two albums. [...] I have to write a few more songs, because I feel like, might as well keep going while it's there. [...] I got 20 songs. I have a whole record in eight weeks, but I want to keep writing." During the interview, Stefani revealed she worked with Rick Nowels, Linda Perry, J.R. Rotem, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, as well as Greg Kurstin, Mattman & Robin and Stargate.

Themes

"There's this crazy thing where I was given this gift – which I didn't know about until it happened – that I could write these songs. But I was always so not confident about it and worried about it, and like writer's block, and all these things, and I was like that, I was so blocked for so long [...] But now it's happening again, and it's like the most incredible thing ever. It's so incredible to be able to use my gift again."

—Stefani about being inspired again to write songs for the album.

In a radio interview for KHTS-FM, while reflecting the album's main theme, Stefani considered the album "a breakup record", declaring: "I would consider it a breakup record. Both of them were. It’s like the two people I ... I only had two boyfriends. I wrote two records about them. You know what I mean? It’s just weird. [...] It just makes me believe in God and my journey. My cross to bear was to go through these heartbreaks and write these songs and help people." In an interview for Ryan Seacrest, the singer also revealed that while writing the songs for the album and feeling the process as therapeutic during her personal struggles with the end of her marriage, her label thought the album was too personal to release. She commented: "The record company was like, ‘Listen, we really think your record is too personal and no one is going to relate to this record and maybe you should just put it out as an artistic body of work — don’t even think about radio'. She described the sensation as the same feeling of being literally punched in the stomach. However, she rebelled against their advice and continued writing personal songs and the next day she ended up writing what she thought was the least commercial song on the album, "Used to Love You", and they approved it.

According to Stefani, the roller coaster of emotions that she experienced in the last year was going to reflect on the album, with the first songs written for the album having a sarcastic and dark humour-vibe, while later she described the other songs as having a "realness" to it, and finally she also described the rest of the songs as "joyful and happy". The first song to be written for the album was called "You Don't Know Me", a very personal song written with Rick Nowels. According to herself, the song was "the first opening of the channel" of her songwriting inspiration, and a hint that the album could really happen. In the early stages, she also wrote a song with Linda Perry called "Medicine Man", written in-flight on the way to No Doubt's Jazz Festival show in New Orleans. Another song, "Red Flag", was the first song she wrote with J.R. Rotem, Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, and she described it as a "work of art" and that it "expresses so clearly what [she] was [going through] at the time." They also worked on other songs, such as "Naughty", "Misery", which she considered a "really happy song," and "Make Me Like You", produced by Mattman & Robin, which she was surpised on how good the song was.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	A−
NME	3/5
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin	5/10

This Is What the Truth Feels Like has received generally favorable reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68, based on 9 reviews. Leah Grenblatt of Entertainment Weekly stated that Stefani's material "feels truer—and sounds stronger—than it has in years." Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times was very positive in his review, highlighting that "[h]er singing — and, more important, what her singing is saying — is always front and center, which gives the music an intimate quality even at its most polished." Ian Drew of Us Weekly gave the album a rating of three out of four stars, but felt that "her pop grooves show less ingenuity than her previous work." Sarah Rodman of Boston Globe called it "the best and most personal of her three solo releases." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine opined about its urban-leaning beats, saying: "It’s easy to chastise aging pop stars for chasing trends or trying to recapture past glories, but those efforts here are thrown into sharp relief by the maturity of the album’s first half."

Giving the album a rating of three-out-of-five-stars, Rob Sheffield wrote for Rolling Stone that the album "has a rushed feel – a likable but low-personality version of her familiar bubble-pop solo mode." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic found the album to be "a bit of mess" since "there's a lot of ground for her to cover." He also analysed that, "By pursuing the twin inclinations to spill her heart while pushing musically forward, Stefani often mangles the mood." Erlewine, however, noted that despite the "moments of emotional bloodletting or thirsty appeals to the top of the charts," the album "manages to be as fleet, giddy, and charming as Gwen Stefani ever is." In a mixed review, Theon Weber of Spin commented, "[I]n creating a schism between her punkish pep and her new-wave nostalgia, it leaves the former stranded and the latter generic."

Release and promotion

On October 17, 2015, Stefani premiered a song called "Used to Love You" during a MasterCard Priceless Surprises concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Later, she announced it as single and released it. During promotional interviews for the song, she confirmed the album to be released sometime around 2016. It was among many magazine lists of "The Most Anticipated Albums of 2016". On February 9, 2016, she posted the album's tracklist through her Twitter account with the caption "This Is What the Truth Feels Like...", which was later confirmed as the album's title. A day later, the album's art cover was released, along with four bonus tracks exclusive for the Target edition. The cover features a close-up shot of Stefani with "hand drawn hearts, tears and flowers", which according to Carolyn Menyes of Music Times, "giv[es] the record a sense of femininity and raw emotion." "Misery" was released as a promotional single on March 11, 2016.

Singles

The album's lead single "Used to Love You" was released three days after its live premiere, on October 20, 2015. It received a positive response from critics, who praised the song's honest lyrics as well as Stefani's emotional performance. Its simple music video was released on the same day as the song, and it consists in a single shot of Stefani in a white tank top, blue brassiere and gold necklace on a black background, emoting, and occasionally mouthing some of the words of the song. The song performed moderately on the charts, peaking at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 10 on the Adult Pop Songs, while elsewhere it reached the lower regions of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

"Make Me Like You" was released as the album's second single on February 12, 2016. The accompanying music video for the song was the first music video created on live television. It was recorded during the 2016 Grammy Awards commercial break. The finished project was later posted on Vevo. The song received acclaim from critics, who enjoyed its upbeat pop sound and catchy lyrics.

Track listing

Standard edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Misery"	Gwen Stefani Justin Tranter Julia Michaels Mattias Larsson Robin Fredriksson	Mattman & Robin	3:26
2.	"You're My Favorite"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Greg Kurstin	Kurstin	2:56
3.	"Where Would I Be?"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Kurstin	Kurstin	3:18
4.	"Make Me Like You"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Larsson Fredriksson	Mattman & Robin	3:36
5.	"Truth"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Larsson Fredriksson	Mattman & Robin	3:34
6.	"Used to Love You"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Jonathan "J.R." Rotem Teal Douville	Rotem Douville[a] Green[a]	3:47
7.	"Send Me a Picture"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Kurstin	Kurstin	3:35
8.	"Red Flag"	Stefani Tranter Raja Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:20
9.	"Asking 4 It" (featuring Fetty Wap)	Stefani Tranter Michaels Tor Hermansen Mikkel Eriksen Willie Maxwell II	Stargate Tim Blacksmith[b] Danny D[b]	3:30
10.	"Naughty"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:07
11.	"Me Without You"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem	Rotem	3:33
12.	"Rare"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Kurstin	Kurstin	3:55
Total length:				41:37

International standard edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Loveable"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:18
Total length:				44:55

International deluxe edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Rocket Ship"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Douville	Rotem Douville[a]	3:08
14.	"Getting Warmer"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Green	Rotem Douville[a] Green[a]	3:24
15.	"Obsessed"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:36
16.	"Splash"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:50
17.	"Loveable"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:18
Total length:				58:53

Target deluxe edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Rocket Ship"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Douville	Rotem Douville[a]	3:08
14.	"Getting Warmer"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Green	Rotem Douville[a] Green[a]	3:24
15.	"Obsessed"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:36
16.	"Splash"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:50
Total length:				55:35

Japanese edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Rocket Ship"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Douville	Rotem Douville[a]	3:08
14.	"Getting Warmer"	Stefani Tranter Michaels Rotem Green	Rotem Douville[a] Green[a]	3:24
15.	"Obsessed"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:36
16.	"Splash"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem	Rotem	3:50
17.	"Loveable"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem		3:18
18.	"War Paint"	Stefani Tranter Kumari Rotem Lovy Longomba Douville Corraliza		3:49
Total length:				62:42

Release history

List of release dates, formats, label, editions and reference

Date	Format(s)	Label	Edition(s)	Ref.
March 18, 2016	CD digital download	Interscope	Standard deluxe