This Is What the Truth Feels Like is the third studio album by American singer Gwen Stefani. It was released on March 18, 2016, by Interscope Records. Initially, the album was scheduled to be released in December 2014 with Stefani working with a handful of high-profile producers, and Benny Blanco serving as executive producer. However, after the underperformance of her 2014 singles and the writer's block Stefani suffered, she did not feel comfortable curating an album and scrapped the whole record in favor of starting again. The album's release was scheduled after Stefani hinted at it on her Twitter account.
Inspired by both the end of her marriage and eventual newfound romance, Stefani returned to writing new 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 album in a few months. Describing it as a breakup record, she created songs with a sarcastic and dark-humor vibe, in addition to ones that felt real, joyful, and happy. Musically, This Is What the Truth Feels Like is a pop record that is similar to the material on Stefani's previous studio albums. The record includes a guest appearance by rapper Fetty Wap.
The album received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its honest and vulnerable nature and considered it her most personal album. However, some thought the album was too calculated and did not capture the essence of a breakup album because it lacked a clear focus. Commercially, the album was moderately successful, becoming Stefani's first number one on the Billboard 200; in several other major music markets, it peaked within the top 40 on the charts. To further promote the album, Stefani embarked on her third concert tour, the This Is What the Truth Feels Like Tour with rapper Eve in North America and headlined the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre Final Shows with opening act Young the Giant.
The album's official lead single, "Used to Love You", was released on October 20, 2015, to a positive response and had moderate success on the charts. Its second single, "Make Me Like You", was released on February 12, 2016, with a similar reception. The accompanying music video was the first to be created live on television, and was broadcast during a commercial break for the 2016 Grammy Awards. "Misery" was originally issued as a promotional single before being released as the album's third single on May 23, 2016.
Background 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 the request of her longtime collaborator and friend Pharrell Williams, who was one of the festival's headliners. After the performance, Williams hinted at a possible return for the singer. In September 2014, she revealed she was writing for two records: her third solo studio album and her band No Doubt's seventh studio album. She told MTV News: "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 live on The Voice. Interscope Records chairman John Janick also revealed that producer Benny Blanco would 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 met with a mixed response from critics and saw moderate success on the charts. Soon after it was announced that a new song titled "Spark the Fire" would be released; produced by Pharrell Williams, it was released on December 1, 2014. She revealed to Spin in December 2014 that she worked with Calvin Harris, Charli XCX, and Sia on the album, and her desire to work with Chris Martin and Diplo at some point in the future. Despite performing the Sia-penned track "Start a War" during a concert, and registering two Charli XCX tracks ("Hard 2 Love" and "Hell Yeah Baby") with the BMI, they were never released physically. In January 2015, the singer revealed she had decided to slow the album's recording process because she felt it was not complete. In May 2015, rapper LunchMoney Lewis told Ryan Seacrest he was working with Stefani on the record.
In August, Stefani filed for divorce from her husband Gavin Rossdale after almost thirteen years of marriage. In October, Stefani revealed to Entertainment Weekly that she scrapped the 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". She later told Zane Lowe that she had attempted to curate an entire album, but it did not 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 progression, 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." Stefani also revealed she had worked with musicians Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, Greg Kurstin, in addition to production duo Mattman & Robin and the Stargate production team. The album was completed in January 2016. Stefani revealed in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on February 25 that "'four of five' songs" were written in the previous month.
Writing and inspiration
Thematically, Stefani considered the album to be mainly "a breakup record", declaring: "I would consider it a breakup record. [...] 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." The singer also told Ryan Seacrest that while writing the songs for the album during her personal struggles with the end of her marriage, she felt the process was therapeutic. 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 of hearing this was like being punched in the stomach.
According to Stefani, the various emotions she had experienced in the past year would be reflected on the album. The first songs written for the album had a sarcastic and humorous vibe, while she later described the other songs as having a "realness" to them. The first song written for the album was "You Don't Know Me", a personal song penned with Rick Nowels. According to the singer, the song was "the first opening of the channel" of her songwriting inspiration. In the early stages, she also wrote a song with Linda Perry called "Medicine Man" while flying 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. She described it as a "work of art" for "express[ing] 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, having been surprised by the result, she called "so good"!
Themes
This Is What the Truth Feels Like focuses on several themes, including "moving on from a broken relationship" to "falling in love again". Her divorce from Gavin Rossdale served as the main source of inspiration for the former, while her subsequent romance with Blake Shelton served as an inspiration for the latter. The singer intended the album to show her desire for "forgiveness" instead of "revenge". Stefani's take on her "messy divorce" is evident in the single "Used to Love You", while tracks like "Send Me a Picture" and "Rare" find her embracing a new love. She kept the news of her divorce hidden from her writing and production teams during the recording sessions, however, Stefani "suspect[ed] her collaborators knew she was in crisis because of her lyrics". When asked in a GQ interview: "Did you think this project was going to be a heartbreak album? It seems like a falling-in-love album. Was that a surprise?" Stefani responded:
John Janick, the chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, told Stefani that he was unsure of her songs "connect[ing] with people", encouraging her to create an "artistic record" and to skip radio altogether. Janick later changed his mind and got in touch with Stefani after listening to "Used to Love You". She called it "the most personal song" she had ever written and appreciated Janick's decision commenting: "That's never happened in my entire career." After writing "Truth", she was inspired to title the album with something similar. By the time several personal themed tracks were completed, Stefani began creating songs dealing with her newfound relationship with Shelton; "Make Me Like You" details "the early stage of their romance", while the title track suggests what the public might think of their romance, with lyrics such as: "They're all gonna say I'm rebounding, so rebound all over me".
This Is What the Truth Feels Like features a range of genres; including pop, reggae, disco and dancehall, R&B, hip hop and "punky" electro-pop music. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly viewed it as "an album so directly torn from Stefani's recent, much-documented romantic upheavals that it could be called 'The Ballad of Blake and Gavin. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic added that: "Stefani spends roughly half of the record singing breezy songs of liberation." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine commented: "While an artist converting personal tragedy into creative capital is hardly new, the nakedness with which Stefani assesses the ruins of her relationship is stark, especially compared to the self-proclaimed guilty pleasures of Love. Angel. Music. Baby. and The Sweet Escape." On writing about both relationships, Stefani claimed: "I don't have any secrets; I don't have anything to hide. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm happy to share my story. [This] is really the only record I've written that's mostly happy; all the others are about heartbreak. And there's some of that on here—it needed that, to make the rest feel as good as it feels."
Music and lyrics