Well, “Excuse Me Mr.”, I'm dealing with some doubt: Should I call this Ska or is it Pop? Is it Punk or is it Rock? Maybe Reggae falls closer to the mark? I don't know - I guess we'll just have to call it unique...
Released more than a decade and a half ago, No Doubt's third studio album and big-break, Tragic Kingdom, still evades specificity when answering for it's musical genre. The sounding of some nationality of horn alongside an assumedly Jamaican drum hardly answers our question, as they only embellish the mostly electronic accompaniment provided for Gwen Stefani's breathy, angst-driven girl vocals. Spunky guitar solos, punching drum lines, circus and game-show sound-effects along with funky disco beats, only thicken the web of confusion involving the question of genre but, do help to provide a taste of No Doubt's eclectic soundscape that is built upon in later albums.
Unlike the soundscape, the themes are pretty consistent throughout. It's a fourteen-part series of pretty 'boppily' presented complaints about the modern world and the people living in it: annoying personalities, stereotypes and the emotional tragedies that result from them. We're hearing all about denial, bad memories, paranoia, incompatibility, bad habits... Oh, and did I mention losers and leeches?
Feminism works undercover here. This album is all about a girl's place in the modern world, her feelings about the breakdown of relationships and the discontent and self-loathing suffered at the frailty of others, mainly men. It's cynical and it's honest but it's cheeky, not depressing. Humour is what makes the messages so accessible. Take the lyrics of “Spiderwebs”: “And it's all your fault – I screen my phone calls” or “Sunday Morning”: “Sappy, pathetic little me – that was the girl I used to be”; the blame is passed along and this girl (Gwen specifically, or whoever, more generally) is standing up to the world. It's all about defiance and female fragility barely appears at all...(“Don't Speak”, with phrases like “Don't tell me 'cause it hurts”, is a poignant exception to this 'defiance' rule, so becoming one of the - in my opinion - most decent karaoke anthems available throughout the globe. It is - again, in my opinion - worthy of being renamed “Gwen's Lament”...)
Now for my general opinion: the hits are magic but the misses are tragic (though not bad enough to stop the album from going Double-Platinum in August 1996). I really enjoy the emotional honesty in the lyrics and their delivery. Gwen manages to make everything sound so conversational, even though she is singing...or yelling...or whining (most of which remains pleasant). But, laments do have their limits. I have to admit that I liken the sounds in the 'tragedies', namely “Different People” and “The Climb”, to those of somebody who is having a meltdown in the kitchen while attempting to wash the dishes. Too much moaning, screeching, bellowing and general dissonance. Those tracks are rather draining, if not almost unbearable to listen to without having the thought of throwing a dish or two back in return...
Anthems like “Just A Girl” (a song about gender stereotypes, later used in the chick-flick Clueless and, which may have - in my opinion - motivated Avril Lavigne's music career, possibly by making her jealous...), “ Spiderwebs”, “Excuse Me Mr.”, “Don't Speak” and “Sunday Morning” are agelessly chant-worthy. They wake you up, make you move and remain palatable for a fair while on repeat – that's the magic of No Doubt.
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