Hands up anyone who was wondering what former Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale was up to these days? Okay, now keep your hand up if you were desperately waiting for him to release his debut solo album... Hmmm  not that many hands still up I'll wager. Whatever the reason for this record being released at this time, Bush finally threw in the towel in 2002 to a fair amount of indifference,  why is the big question that is never far from your mind when listening to "Wanderlust". At least Rossdale seems to address the hiatus when he sings " I've been gone too long" in the chorus of opening track "Can't Stop The World". In the same way that Bush struggled to maintain any credibility with their Nirvana-lite post grunge Rossdale seems to have hamstrung his solo career from the outset with this insipid collection. The main problem is that, personality-wise, Rossdale has neither the everyman appeal of Dave Grohl nor the gravitas of Grant Nicholas which leaves this album struggling for that self same, elusive, credibility factor.  

When you throw in the lumpen white reggae of "Future World" (at least The Police will be happy that the bass line to "The Beds Too Big Without You" isn't just left gathering dust...) and some of the most cringeworthy lyrics to have been committed to record, with Rossdale presumably keeping a straight face when delivering lines like "the last time I felt this good, she was the fire, I was her wood" during "This Is Happiness" you know that things have taken a turn for the worse. And this despite the whole project being produced by Bob Rock and having some heavyweight songwriting help, from Rock, Linda Perry and Dave Stewart. 

"Wanderlust" is a mish mash of different musical styles, running the gamut from NIN-esque industrial electronica to soft rock balladry, often within the same song and it may be that this is supposed to convey a sense of adventure, unfortunately the net result comes across as a collection of songs that lack direction or spark both individually and collectively.

John Lewins