This was originally a ska punk band from California, that formed in 1986. Their later releases have veered into other genres, such as pop punk, new wave, alternative rock, electropop, reggae, etc. The lead singer is Gwen Stefani, who embarked on a solo career in 2004.

tek's rating: ¼

No Doubt
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This is the band's first studio album, released in 1992. It originally didn't sell a ton of copies, but I like it. It's the second of their albums that I bought, following their much more successful third album. And I guess a lot of other people bought it after that album, too. The liner notes contain song lyrics.

1. "BND": This is just 45 seconds, and instrumental, but it's good enough.

2. "Let's Get Back": I wasn't expecting this to sound familiar, but it does. And I like it.

3. "Ache": This is about a toothache, of all things to write a song about. I think it's meant to be funny, probably. It sounds okay, anyway.

4. "Get on the Ball"

5. "Move On"

6. "Sad for Me": This doesn't sound like ska. I don't know what it sounds like. But it's not bad.

7. "Doormat"

8. "Big City Train"

9. "Trapped in a Box": This is the album's one single, which the band released themselves when their label wouldn't. I'm sure I saw the music video before I bought the album, and it remains the one song I really remember when I'm not listening to it. Definitely my favorite song on the album.

10. "Sometimes": This is another song I'm not sure what genre to call.

11. "Sinking"

12. "A Little Something Refreshing": This isn't much more than a minute long, and it's sung pretty fast. It's a silly song, but it's probably my second favorite song on the album.

13. "Paulina": I think this is also supposed to be funny, but it's kind of stalkery.

14. "Brand New Day"

Well, I think all the songs are at least okay, if not particularly memorable. And a few of them are better than okay, but still not nearly among my favorite No Doubt songs. It's a decent album, though.

tek's rating: ¾

Tragic Kingdom
AllMusic; Amazon; Apple Music; Discogs; Interscope; Spotify; Wikipedia

This is the band's third album, released in 1995 (just about seven months after their second album, which I've never heard). It's more pop/punk/alternative/whatever than their first album, which was mostly just ska. But this one is sort of ska, too, so I'm including it on the same page as their first album, instead of trying to decide where else it might fit in my review categories. It spawned 7 singles (not all of them in the U.S.), though the last one I don't think I was ever aware of. The liner notes contain song lyrics.

1. "Spiderwebs": This was the second single. It's one of my favorites. I always thought if I ever had my own answering machine, I'd leave a clip from this song as the outgoing message. But I never did. Oh well, it's still a super fun song.

2. "Excuse Me Mr.": This was the fourth single. It's another really good song, which I always remembered. But upon re-listening to it in 2025, I find I like it even better than I remembered.

3. "Just a Girl": This was the first single, released ahead of the album. I consider it to be probably the band's most iconic song, even if it's not their biggest hit. It's another one of my favorites. Aside from rocking really hard, it's a great girl power anthem, not so much for specifically talking about what girls/women can do, but for calling out misogynistic attempts to tell girls what they can't do. Gotta love it.

4. "Happy Now?": This was the sixth single. While it's a song I do sort of remember, I couldn't have guessed that it was ever released as a single. It's not one of my favorites, but it's still really good.

5. "Different People": I didn't remember this before re-listening to the album for this review, but now it sounds familiar. I'm still not gonna find it really memorable, but I like it.

6. "Hey You!": This was the seventh single, released in 1998. I didn't remember it, but now it sounds familiar. It's decent.

7. "The Climb": This is the longest song on the album, at 6:37. It doesn't really sound familiar to me. Parts of it sound almost gospel-y to me, though it's still mostly a ska-punk song, or whatever. Other parts have an almost carnival vibe. And parts of it actually remind me of Queen's "We Are the Champions". I guess it's good, but I'm sure I won't remember it.

8. "Sixteen": This is another one I didn't remember until I re-listened to the album, but now it's familiar. It's pretty good, definitely rocks. I should try harder to remember it.

9. "Sunday Morning": This was the fifth single. It's another one of my favorites. And it might have my favorite music video from the album.

10. "Don't Speak": This was the third single. It might be my favorite No Doubt song ever, though it's rather depressing, being a breakup song. It's also probably No Doubt's least ska-ish song, but I'd like to think that has nothing to do with its being my favorite. It's just very intense and emotive.

11. "You Can Do It": Another one that I didn't remember, but sounds familiar now. It's good, has a kind of funky/disco-y '70s sound.

12. "World Go 'Round": Another one that only sounds familiar upon re-listening. I feel like it might be one of the most ska-like songs on the album, but with a mix of other sounds like reggae and gospel or something. It's pretty decent.

13. "End It on This": Well obviously, the album doesn't end on this one, despite the title. And I think that's good, because I find the actual last song more memorable. In fact I don't quite remember this one at all. I guess it's about the end of a relationship, but while I think it's okay, it's not even close to "Don't Speak".

14. "Tragic Kingdom": This is the second-longest song, at 5:31. It's not one of the absolutely most memorable songs on the album, but I find it second-tier memorable. And I think it's a good way to end the album, and maybe the most appropriate song for the album to be titled after. I definitely like it a lot.

Well, I'll admit that I don't always pay that much attention to the lyrics, so I couldn't tell you with any surety what most of the songs are about. But I think they all have sort of stories or messages, which is cool. There's not a bad song on the album, and several of them I really love.