Gwen Stefani is back with the new single “Baby Don’t Lie.” As the lead singer of the 90’s group No Doubt, Gwen has witnessed both the brute and the splendor that is the entertainment industry. Their 1992 self-titled debut album failed to make an impact, labeling the group expendable and thus subjecting them to abandonment by Interscope. And their second effort, The Beacon Street Collection, had just a lukewarm effect (to their credit, it was financed and released independently), as did 1998’sReturn of Saturn. But if you fast forward to the next millennium, the complete opposite supervenes: “Let Me Blow Ya Mind,” “Hey Baby,” “Underneath it All,” and “RichGirl” were all major hits, adorned by an assemblage of award nominations and wins, and, amongst other notable achievements, “Hollaback Girl,” which became the first-ever digital download to reach the one million mark.
However, the beginning of Gwen’s success lies not in the past decade, but rather in the mid ‘90s, with No Doubt’s third LP Tragic Kingdom. A mainstream-friendly version of their earlier ska-punk commercial failure, this album went on to sell 16 million copies.
We miss that version of No Doubt, and it’s not that we don’t love Gwen and No Doubt today, but here are 10 reasons why we want the Tragic Kingdom sound back. Click in the photo gallery on VIBE to read on.