804 No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom (1995)

Studio Album - Pop Punk

About the Act:

No Doubt are an American band from Disneyland (well, Anaheim, California, which is where Disneyland is). They have existed since 1986, and are somewhat famously fronted by Gwen Stefani. They are listed as "Pop Rock, Ska Punk, Alternative Rock, New Wave, Synth Pop and Dancehall". I don't know what dancehall is but believe it is a variant in the Reggae family. No Doubt have released 6 studio albums, and have had quite a lot of mega-success.

About the Album:

This was the third album from the band, and the first after their main songwriter, Gwen's brother, left the band. Apparently he hated touring. Anyway, this meant the songs were written by Gwen and Tom Dumont, most of the words by Gwen.

The title is taken from somebody's name for Disneyland.

My History with this Album:

None, I think. I feel like I am very familiar with the cover, but maybe it's just striking. I don't seem to have a copy. I do know a couple of songs, Just a Girl and the mega-hit Don't Speak.

Review:

In the late 90s I watched a film called Go, with my then flatmate. We liked it, and we were particularly taken with the soundtrack, which was crazily varied. It seemed to be a thing at the time to do so. It featured electronica, psychedelia and all sorts, including No Doubt's song You. This may have been the first time I became aware of them as a band.

There's this thing that happened to punk. It burst on into the world, and shocked everybody, especially Mary Whitehouse, and then it kind of settled down a bit and learned how to play its instruments, and then it morphed. First came new wave, but then came Punk Ska, and that seemed to be quite a thing (possibly especially in America). So No Doubt were not really around at that point, but they have created a sort of pop/punk/ska thing. Some tracks are pop, some are rock, some are ska, there are flavours of other things in there too, in a nicely varied way, and there is some punk sugar on the top of that, mostly in the vocals, but also partly in the guitars and the energy.

So it is I guess essentially a pop album, in that it is very accessible. It's varied, like a good album should be, and musically appealing, at least to me. The arrangements are nice, the instrumentation has some surprises, the production has some twists, all the sort of thing that makes radio-friendly music. The songs are generally strong. Don't Speak is about a breakup - standard fare, but well-written and nicely delivered, it's no surprise it was a hit. Just A Girl is about Gwen's parent's attitude to her as a late teenager, and is a good track. I wouldn't say any are weak and some are really good.

So I want a separate paragraph for the voice. Gwen is known for a solo career too, and she is a really competent singer, there are lots of different shades here, from Punk Femme, to Rock Chick to Burlesque almost, to soulful. She has a fairly distinctive fast and deep vibrato, like Marilyn Monroe, and her delivery at times reminds me of Lesley Phillips, who I would be surprised if anyone reading this had heard of.  She's got a good set of lungs on her, and a good sense of delivery. It possibly helps that she wrote most of the words.

All in all, actually a great album. If you like pop rock at all then this is, in my opinion at the top end of that, inventive, varied, thoughtful sometimes, energetic at others and a good listen.

7.9/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/22MtHr01EzeL6jmc5uwpHC

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb3vi41SB7TYX6uiXLA6MgpGwzcGtnwQD

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_Kingdom