No Doubt about it, it is a classic! (Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt)

Member Name: cpf1993

Product:	Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
Date:	07/02/01 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of great songs, with great variety and the epic "Don't Speak".

Disadvantages: The song "Tragic Kingdom" itself.

There are two good tests of an album in my book. Firstly, can you listen to it all the way through without finding one track you really cannot stand? Secondly, can you put it on years after you bought it and enjoy it again as if you had just bought it?

Well for me the No Doubt album "Tragic Kingdom" passes those tests with flying colours. The group from Anaheim, California, released this album in 1996, and it helped make their name on both sides of the Atlantic. I was fortunate to see them coming (so to speak), as I was out in Santa Ana (another part of Orange County, just down the road from Anaheim), California from January to March in 1997, just prior to them being successful in Britain. I would imagine that because of that I had this album before most British people too, and I still love it just as much today.

As a play on words of Disney's "Magic Kingdom" a lot of the inspiration to the album came from the break up between lead singer Gwen Stefani and bass player Tony Kanal. The legend is that they went out together for seven years, and as she thought he was about to propose he instead ended the relationship. I do not know how they could do it, but both members stayed in the band, and indeed co-wrote a lot of the songs on it.

A lot of great art comes from such heartache, and the album is brimming with lots of personal break-up tales that I imagine must have been very difficult to share. However a lot of people must have been able to relate to them, especially with the smash-hit single "Don't Speak", an especially intimate portrayal of a break-up.

A lot of people have labelled No Doubt as a ska group, but this album shows such a degree of versatility that I am not sure you can put them in only one category of music. Anyway, here is the track-by-track breakdown of the album:

1 - "Spiderwebs"
Apparently based on Stefani's real-life problems with a problematic stalke
r. It isn't a song which dwells on the menace of crank calls however, instead concentrating on punchy instruments, excellent vocals by Stefani and a chorus which could provide you with a new answerphone message (if you really need one, that is).

2 - "Excuse Me Mr."
A song full of desperation, which seems like it is about homelessness but has more than a hint that loneliness is heart of the problem linked in with it. The song is a rollercoaster, with a very interesting piano section which makes you think of a soundtrack to an old black and white film where a heroine is about to rescued. Just what they want you to think, a really nice touch.

3 - "Just A Girl"
Feminist anthem, a song with attitude, or just a song to play drums on your steering wheel to (as I have done on numerous occasions). The lyrics are an eye-opening insight into what it is like to be a woman in the music industry, over-protected and over-exposed in the extreme. "Oh... I've had it up to here!"

4 - "Happy Now"
One of the many songs on the album inspired by the Stefani/Kanal break-up. It is a song which offers no bridge to the past, but appears to show tremendous bitterness towards the ex-partner. An interesting song but you do wonder how both of them have remained in the band!

5 - "Different People"
A bit of a different sound to this one. Significantly slower, but it picks up towards the end of the song. A celebration of all the different types of people there are in the world, with interesting use of a what sounds like a brass section during the instrumental parts too!

6 - "Hey You"
Gwen Stefani is apparently obsessed with weddings, and that is expressed in some of the lyrics here, which mention (among other things) wedding dresses and Barbie dolls. It is another song which rolls along easily, with variety again appearing in the presence of a sitar at the beginning an
d end of the song!

7 - "The Climb"
A slower, perhaps more thought-invoking song in comparison with most other songs on the album (even "Don't Speak", which tends to evoke emotion rather than thought). Stefani's vocals again excel in a tale of someone taking on the challenges of life and their refusal to give up.

8 - "Sixteen"
A song which sounds somewhat thrashy to start with, but quickly settles down to be a quick-fire tale of a girl's coming of age, gossip that they will endure and social circumstances that they have to overcome.

9 - "Sunday Morning"
Always a song which brings a smile to my face, as a good friend of mine also wrote a song which he called "Sunday Morning" and I always remind him how much better this track is! It is another song apparently dedicated to the Stefani/Kanal break-up, although it is also supposed to be Kanal's favourite No Doubt song.

10 - "Don't Speak"
The famous number one single, the haunting tale of the break-up between Stefani and Kanal. Slow and tragic lyrics mixed in with a punchy and emotional chorus. Stefani is outstanding, the music provides suitably dramatic accompaniment and the Spanish guitar provides a very nice bridge to the end of the song. A classic, it makes the album value for money just by itself.

(Review delayed by fifteen minutes while I listen to track 10 a few more times... normal service will now be resumed.)

11 - "You Can Do It"
Another easy to listen to number, which flows along easily. It seemingly tells the story of someone who is struggling to get their life back together (possibly an autobiographical Stefani tale after her break-up with Kanal?). The song, like so many on the album, builds up to a very nice finish.

12 - "World Go 'Round"
I love the intro on this song, which has a nice guitar section before a brass sectio
n comes in. What follows is a pretty hefty condemnation of the state of the world, although the catchy/cheery sound of the sound is perhaps misleading.

13 - "End It On This"
It is not the end of the album, so it must be about the Stefani/Kanal break-up right? Well, it seems to be. The chorus lyric of "Give me one last kiss, Let's end it on this" seems to tell the story pretty well. However it sounds like a pretty positive song, summing up the end of a relationship and the beginning of the rest of someone's life. Nice musical backing too.

14 - "Tragic Kingdom"
Clearly meant to mimic Disneyland for me the title track is the weakest song on the album. The music neither shows the full talents of the band or of Stefani's powerful voice, and at over five minutes in length it goes on far too long. By comparison with the rest of the album it is a durge, and it is a shame it is the endnote to the album.

The great shame is that No Doubt are not really a mainstream band, and so after the almost universal appeal of "Don't Speak" follow-ups like "Just a Girl" and "Spiderwebs" effectively flopped. In my opinion that was a terrible shame, and indeed they have yet to repeat the successes of 1997 in Britain. I would still fully recommend this album, as you are not doing No Doubt justice if you have only listened to "Don't Speak".

No Doubt - "Tragic Kingdom"
Released 1996, Trauma Records
http://www.nodoubt.com

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