Latest Release
- 26 APR 2024
- 17 Songs
- Tragic Kingdom · 1995
- Tragic Kingdom · 1995
- Rock Steady (Bonus Track Version) · 2001
- Rock Steady (Bonus Track Version) · 2001
- The Singles 1992-2003 · 2003
- Tragic Kingdom · 1995
- Tragic Kingdom · 1995
- Rock Steady (Bonus Track Version) · 2001
- Tragic Kingdom · 1995
- Push and Shove (Deluxe Version) · 2012
Essential Albums
- Going into 2001’s <I>Rock Steady</I>, No Doubt were out of sorts. Their breakthrough, 1995’s <I>Tragic Kingdom</I>, had made them a multiplatinum success, and Gwen Stefani an inspiration to a new generation of feminists—but its follow-up, 2000’s <I>Return of Saturn</I>, sold a fifth of the copies. Stefani said she’d gotten in the habit of stewing over her lyrics to the point of depression. Guitarist Tom Dumont said he was proud of the music they’d made, but the experience of making it was starting to feel like going to work. They were taking themselves too seriously, they thought—so they decided not to. <I>Rock Steady</I> was born out of a ritual that started on the <I>Return of Saturn</I> tour: Play the show, go back to the dressing room, load a boombox with Jamaican dancehall, grab some people and have a little party. Where <I>Saturn</I>—an underrated album, admittedly—feels like a young band reaching for maturity, <I>Rock Steady</I> sounds like a band mature enough to cool out and enjoy it. They dabble in dancehall (“Hey Baby”), futuristic R&B (the Neptunes-produced “Hella Good”) and toylike synth ballads (“Running”). And they don’t sound afraid to be a little goofy (“Making Out”, which features the absurdly to-the-point line “I’m really missing it in so many ways/I anticipate us making out”). But in the simplicity of their approach is a new kind of clarity: They want to have fun, so they have it. And when they sober up for a love song—the beautiful “Underneath It All”—it’s with a lightness that their younger, more serious selves couldn’t have understood.
- It was the ska record heard ’round the world. No Doubt’s third album, Tragic Kingdom, released in 1995, unexpectedly propelled the left-of-center band into mainstream success, thanks to timeless singles like “Don’t Speak” and “Just A Girl,” both co-written by lead singer Gwen Stefani. In the mid-’90s, Stefani was just getting her feet wet as a songwriter when her brother and former No Doubt keyboardist Eric Stefani left the band, following stylistic disagreements with Interscope Records. In previous projects, Eric undertook the songwriting responsibilities, but after his departure—and with the addition of producer Matthew Wilder—Gwen moved deeper into the writer’s chair, leading to a more pop-oriented sound. Tragic Kingdom arrived amidst the mainstream peak of grunge and alternative music: Soundgarden’s Superunknown was dominating the album charts, and young rock fans were still flying the flannel. By contrast, No Doubt hailed from the sunny environs of Anaheim, California, and the success of Tragic Kingdom would inject a blast of breezy ska into the airwaves and the album charts—and, in doing so, turn Gwen Stefani into a genuine Gen-X superstar. She was one of the few true pop dynamos of the 1990s: a singer with a voice that could project both ferocity and naïveté—sometimes in the same song, as with “Just A Girl”. And despite her sunshiny exterior, she poured the band’s behind-the-scenes conflicts—including the departure of her brother, and her break-up with bassist Tony Kanal—into her lyrics. That flurry of feelings gave Tragic Kingdom its emotional heft—but it was the band’s sprightly playing and songwriting that would turn the album into a chart-topping smash.
- 2012
- 2005
- 2005
- 2005
- 2005
- 2005
Artist Playlists
- Bright pop melodies over danceable, ska-indebted grooves.
- The ska icons and New Wave titans inspiring Gwen Stefani and crew.
- Genre-bending punks and pop stars with colourful attitudes.
Singles & EPs
More To Hear
- Revisiting Katy Perry's Halftime Show and more.
- Revisiting two legendary shows in Super Bowl Halftime history.
- Jayde Donovan celebrates 20 years of No Doubt’s Rock Steady.
- Where developing your gifts can lead.
About No Doubt
The No Doubt story is a whirlwind saga of revolving-door personnel, intra-band romances, and tragedy—and that was all before the Anaheim group released their first album. Founded by singer John Spence and keyboardist Eric Stefani in 1986, No Doubt started out as a nine-piece ensemble carrying the torch for upbeat 2 Tone ska in a SoCal scene dominated by hardcore brutes—and, as such, it would take nearly a decade for the group to break out of the punk trenches. Following Spence’s suicide in 1987, lead-singing duties eventually fell to the group’s backing vocalist—Stefani’s sister, Gwen—as a pared-down lineup solidified around guitarist Tom DuMont, drummer Adrian Young, and bassist Tony Kanal (Gwen’s boyfriend at the time). While No Doubt’s sleek self-titled 1992 debut failed to connect in the era of peak grunge, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom, recorded just before Eric left the band, couldn’t have been better timed. MTV hits like “Spiderwebs” and “Sunday Morning” added a sassy ska energy to the moshable pop-punk that Green Day had popularised at the time—heralding a new wave of brass-toting pogoists—while the restless anti-patriarchal anthem “Just a Girl” introduced a pop-friendlier brand of feminism to the post-riot-grrrl era. But the album’s stirring centrepiece ballad “Don’t Speak”, written in the aftermath of Gwen’s break-up with Kanal, anticipated the singer’s transformation into a Madonna-esque pop polymath. No Doubt continued to drift away from their ska-punk roots, culminating in the dance-club-courting bangers of 2001’s Rock Steady, effectively a test run for Gwen’s imminent solo reign as America’s premier hollaback girl. But while her ascent to the celebrity A-list put No Doubt on pause for the better part of a decade, 2012’s Push and Shove—featuring contributions from Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and EDM giants Major Lazer—cemented their status as pioneers of the genre-mashing, post-everything modern-pop age.
- ORIGIN
- Anaheim, CA, United States
- FORMED
- December 1986
- GENRE
- Rock