No Doubt

This is the one that made No Doubt a household name on the strength of the Cyndi-Lauper-gone-ska perfecto "Just A Girl" and the tearjerker brilliance of "Don't Speak." That No Doubt managed to break the latest wave of ska on a national scale is one reason to give this disc another spin. The other is that it's so damn fun.

It's the rhythm, stupid. Oh, and in No Doubt's case, a platinum-blond peach of a female
singer, Gwen Stefani, who breaks up the asexual baggy-shorts-and-balloon-pants monotony
of alt-nation guy rock (311 included). Both Tragic Kingdom and 311 are ear candy with good
beats, not just bludgeon-by-numbers guitars, and both bands are remarkably adept at
genre juggling. No Doubt have a spry, white-suburban take on ska and Blondiees... More >

Like any pop skyrocket, Gwen Stefani is video-driven, and so hebephrenic you know she unprotests too much. The production's as bizzy as the Ivy at lunchtime, too. But this act's real problem is ska. Since the dawn of two-tone there hasn't been a single band in the style--excluding the punk Rancid but including Madness and the Specials--that was as songful as its fun-besotted partisans claimed. When that hippity-hop beat is hyped up for postpunk consumption, its energy somehow precludes tune. Not that she could sing in the same shower as classic Cyndi Lauper anyway. But classic Belinda Carlisle is another story. (Grade - C+)