NO DOUBT
Return of Saturn
After No Doubt sold more than 10 million copies of Tragic Kingdom, riding
that wave of success without toppling over must have been a daunting mission.
No sweat for No Doubt. The band toiled as national unknowns with a loyal
local following for a decade before that album's release, and during that
time the band members were learning how to be better songwriters and musicians.
The follow-up, Return of Saturn, glides along that continuum of songcraft
perfection. The band presents a cleaner, less apologist representation
of their influences. They pull off some of the more difficult maneuvers
of pure reggae, ground-pounding ska, and Cars-esque New Wave. Gwen Stefani,
the fearless Orange County princess, belts a powerful pout, her Mae West-meets-Siouxsie
Sioux vocal bravado the bungee cord that springs in between the band's
retro tendencies and SoCal pop-punk attitude. It seems believable that
she could stamp her foot and always get her way, but her self-deprecating
confessions evade brattiness. Songs like "Bathwater" and "Ex-Girlfriend"
reveal the singer's vulnerability to being hurt or dumped on, and the
band's sense of humor and exploration (albeit firmly controlled) matches
the songs' sentiments. This group is growing out and tightening up, and
while the rest of the ska-punk surfer-dude bands do nothing more than
repeat history, No Doubt is creating it.
