Artist: No Doubt
Year Released: 1995
Format Owned: CD, Audio Cassette
Band Lineup: Gwen Stefani (vocals), Tom Dumont (guitar), Tony Kanal (bass), Eric Stefani (keyboards), Adrian Young (percussion, drums)
Track Listing
1. Spiderwebs
2. Excuse Me Mr.
3. Just A Girl
4. Happy Now ?
5. Different People
6. Hey You
7. The Climb
8. Sixteen
9. Sunday Morning
10. Don't Speak
11. You Can Do It
12. World Go 'Round
13. End It On This
14. Tragic Kingdom
Now this album takes me back to being a student. Released the same year that I started university No Doubt were one of the bands that you could guarantee would be played at every single student bar at least once a night, whether it was "Don't Speak" during the slow set or "Spiderwebs", "Excuse Me Mr." or "Just a Girl" during the rest of the night. Depending on where you were and who was the DJ you could hear half this album in one night out.
Mixing elements of ska, reggae, punk and power pop No Doubt had something for everyone, and Tragic Kingdom hit the shelves at just the right time with female-led rock undergoing something of a purple patch, with Garbage and Skunk Anansie at the harder edge and indie bands like Elastica and Sleeper also making a big splash. No Doubt's success was undoubtedly about more than the music at the time. Men wanted to be with Gwen Stefani and women wanted to be her, at least the women I knew did. She was good looking, but also gave off a "one of the boys" vibe, and she certainly wasn't afraid to put 110% into live shows and walk off the stage dripping in sweat. Even in the album the energy comes across, with pretty much every track having a rhythm that encourages you to bounce along and a shout-along chorus. Add in some impressive guitar fills, including the classic ska/reggae style with the emphasis on the up-stroke and on the off-beat and you had an album that was designed for those summer days when you were a student and had nothing to do but lie out in the sun in Botanic Gardens.
Enough reminiscing and on to the songs themselves. Well, "Spiderwebs" starts in like The Specials with the horns and everything, and swiftly drops into simple pop-punk with the emphasis on the up-beat before having a great sing along and bounce along chorus. If the first track of an album should always give you a bit of everything that a band is about, then this is a perfect introduction to No Doubt. "Excuse Me Mr." and "Just a Girl" are all energy and attitude, and bring you straight into the heart of the album before you realise it, with perhaps the best riff on the album appearing below the verse in "Just a Girl", simple but effective.
The energy doesn't let up through "Happy Now?" which has a strong Bangles/Go-Gos influence and "Different People" with it's bouncing bass-line.
"Hey You" is very much in the style of the Bangles yet again, and it's at this point where the album enters a bit of a down period as "The Climb" (still trying to work out which Queen song is being ripped off here), and "Sixteen" fail to really deliver and while they are acceptable they aren't of the same quality as the earlier tracks. "Sunday Morning" is a step back in the right direction and full redemption is swift as "Don't Speak" comes in and I'm not going to argue with the millions of people around the world who love the song, as I think it's bloody brilliant.
"You Can Do It" has an excellent disco vibe, and is a great party tune. "World Go 'Round" is fairly forgettable, but is inoffensive enough, "End It On This" is a solid pop song, with a great piano part which builds to a crescendo as it finishes. The title track "Tragic Kingdom" finishes the album off nicely (including the Star Wars theme to finish), and leaves you forgiving the weak parts and accepting the album for what it is, a solid slab of feel-good music with the odd weak spot. Still sounds fresh almost 16 years after its release, which is always a plus.
Rating: 8/10
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