Gwen Stefani

“Wind It Up”

Dir. Sophie Muller

Having a baby really suits Gwen Stefani.

Looking as svelte and saucy as ever in her new video for “Wind It Up,” the first single from her upcoming album “The Sweet Escape,” Stefani manages to transform Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” into an adults-only show.

The mini-musical opens with the camera panning up a lamb-dotted, astro-turfed hill that settles on Sister Stefani, dressed in nun garb and yodeling the opening lines from Julie Andrews’ famous marionette tune. The second act puts “My Favorite Things” to shame with a noticeably radiant bedtime Gwen instructing eager, Aryanized Asian kids on the finer points of getting wound up. And the performance finishes with a troupe of raucous, Austrian incarnations of the Harajuku girls popping and locking.

After having “awesome visuals” forced down my throat by the last pop princess’ over-the-top-extravaganza (Fergie’s “Fergalicious”), Stefani’s comparatively minimalist approach is like a breath of fresh, Alpine air. Gwen never seems to take herself too seriously, and thankfully, neither does this video. The result is highly motivational—it’s impressive how much bizarre joviality has been jammed into these three minutes of make-believe.

And it all looks very good: dancers move in fast forward to appear like wind-up dolls, Stefani strums a key and sings to her own von Trapp band. This video is really a platform for the queen of hip-pop to chastise the imitators by showing them how it’s really done.

Needless to say, I’m wound up.

—Kathleen A. Fedornak