Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to listen to your wife.<\/p>\n
Thanks in part to the success their song “Don’t Speak” has had
\non rock radio, the ska-rock band No Doubt has been gaining a gaggle
\nof fans – not the least of which is Mrs. Thelen, who kept bugging
\nme to buy her their latest album,
\nTragic Kingdom<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I tried to talk her out of it, remembering the failings their
\ndebut album had back in 1992. “I don’t care,” she said. I told her
\nthe album would mostly be made up of the same watered-down shit
\nthat has been poisoning the airwaves, like “Just A Girl” and
\n“Spiderwebs.”<\/p>\n
Finally, I gave in and bought the tape for her – it was that or
\nsleeping in the car, not a smart thing to do in the Midwest in
\nwinter – but not before ripping off the cellophane and giving it a
\nspin for myself.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it feels so good to know I was right. Gwen Stefani’s
\ntin vocals dominate this album, backed by one of the lamest ska
\nwanna-bes I have ever heard. (You want ska? Check out early
\nFishbone, check out the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – hell, invest in
\nsome old Bob Marley or Desmond Dekker.) Brother Eric makes his
\nfarewell performance with the band om
\nTragic Kingdom<\/i>, adding keyboards into the mix. He supposedly
\nhas gone on to become an animator – smart move.<\/p>\n
All the radio-friendly hits are on here – and admittedly, “Don’t
\nSpeak”
\ndoes<\/i> tend to grow on you. But take away the three singles,
\nand you have one lame album. No Doubt’s attempts to move into rock,
\nlike on “Happy Now?” fail miserably. The songs all seem to be based
\naround Stefani’s voice – which puts the rest of the band at a
\ndisadvantage.<\/p>\n
Are there any good moments on
\nTragic Kingdom<\/i>? Besides “Don’t Speak,” only the song
\n“Sixteen” stands out as having any promise. Actually, that’s better
\nthan their little-known debut, where the only good song on the tape
\nwas the last song.<\/p>\n
Readers may notice I’ve avoided all comments on Stefani’s stage
\nsexpot appearance, bare midriff and all. Simple reason for that,
\nkids – because if the songs are terrible, appearance don’t mean
\nshit. Three words: Wendy O. Williams. (Those of you who know whom
\nI’m referring to, ’nuff said.)<\/p>\n
\nTragic Kingdom<\/i> was a tragic mistake, one which even Mrs.
\nThelen agrees with now, earning the tape a place way in the back of
\nthe legendary Pierce Memorial Archives, next to their debut
\nloser.<\/p>\n
But hey, eight dollars is a small price to pay for sleeping
\nindoors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5648],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-35524","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-no-doubt","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35524"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35524"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}