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"Truth" is a song by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani from her third studio album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like (2016). It was released on March 18, 2016, along with the rest of This Is What the Truth Feels Like by Interscope Records. The track was written by Stefani, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, Mattias Larsson, and Robin Fredriksson. The track's production was handled by solely by Swedish duo Mattman & Robin. "Truth" serves as the titular track for This Is What the Truth Feels Like.

Musically, "Truth" is a solely electropop track, that encompasses a guitar hook. Lyrically, "Truth" discusses the aftermath of a painful breakup and the events that follow. Several contemporary music critics found "Truth" to be written about her newfound relationship with Blake Shelton, similar to the other material on This Is What the Truth Feels Like. "Truth" received generally mixed reviews from critics upon release; many critics favored the track's lyrics, but some found the track to be unmemorable.

Background and recording
In late 2014, Stefani began work on a third solo studio album, and enlisted high profiles musicians, such as Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco, and Charli XCX. After two of the producer tracks, "Baby Don't Lie" and "Spark the Fire" were critically and commercially unsuccessful, Stefani decided to scrap the entire project and "start fresh" with new collaborators. Shortly after, Stefani was approached by A&R President Aaron Bay-Schuck about the possibility of working with relatively new songwriters and producers, such as Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels. After agreeing to work with them, Stefani began writing "deeply personal songs" with them; Interscope Records, Stefani's label, called the songs extremely "uncommercial". "Truth"'s production was handled by Mattman & Robin, shortly after they completed their work on Stefani's single "Make Me Like You".

"Truth", and a majority of the songs of This Is What the Truth Feels Like, were written about Stefani's relationships with Gavin Rossdale and Blake Shelton. After writing several songs about Rossdale, Stefani began shifting the themes of her music and revolving the lyrics around Shelton instead. The idea of writing became even easier for Stefani, who claimed "I got 20 songs. I have a whole record in eight weeks, but I want to keep writing." Both her breakup with Rossdale, and her feelings for Shelton are expressed in "Truth"; Stefani has since stated that "Truth" and her third album are focused on the "breakup".

Composition
"Truth" was written by Stefani, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, Mattias Larsson, and Robin Fredriksson; production of the track was handled by Swedish songwriting duo Mattman & Robin. Musically, "Truth" is an electropop track with a guitar hook, spanning three minutes and thirty-four seconds. Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times stated that the track's genre is "gently bubbling electropop". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described the song, along with "Where Would I Be?" and "Make Me Like You", as "glossy adult pop" and called Stefani "free, never hustling to be hip nor settling into a role as an elder stateswoman."

Sarah Rodman, writing for The Boston Globe, claimed that "Blake Shelton provided the inspiration" for the track, later stating that "Truth" is about Stefani's "giddy new-crush enthusiasm". Sal Cinquemani from Slant found the lyrics "I can love whoever I want / Say whatever I want / Do whatever I want" to serve as "playful puns". Kitty Empire of The Guardian said that along with "Used to Love You", "Truth" is a "truth-telling" song; however, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic found that Stefani "acknowledges that everyone is going to write off her new squeeze as a rebound", later calling it "a canny move, though somewhat ruined by a misplaced hint of raunch in the line when she commands that squeeze to 'rebound all over me'".

Critical reception
"Truth" received generally mixed reviews from contemporary music critics. David Watt of All Noise called "Truth" a "stand-out song" and praised it for being "a crispy rhythmic track that will tell you the a lot of truths that [Stefani] has been trying to say in this album." Krystal Scanlon of Gigwise appreciated "Truth", stating that it "tells her side of her breakup with Rossdale in the most truthful way possible", further praising that the track "examine[s] the emotional scars she was left with after her heartbreak." In a more mixed review, Adam Kivel from Consequence of Sound found "Truth" to be "as cloying as it gets", but later added that "it sounds to be coming from a genuine place." However, some critics found "Truth" to be easily unmemorable; Theon Weber of Spin thought that the track positively displayed Stefani's synthpop era, but found "Truth" to "evaporate in real time".

Credits and personnel

 * Management
 * Recorded at Wolf Cousins Studios, Stockholm, Sweden; Maratone Studios, Stockholm, Sweden; and Interscope Studios, Santa Monica, California


 * Personnel


 * Gwen Stefani – lead vocals, songwriting
 * Robin Fredriksson - songwriting
 * Serban Ghenea - mixing
 * John Hanes - mixing engineer
 * Mattias Larsson - songwriting


 * Julia Michaels - songwriting
 * Mattman & Robin - production
 * Phil Seaford - assistant mixing engineer
 * Justin Tranter - songwriting

Credits adapted from the liner notes of This Is What the Truth Feels Like.