The eponymous first album is mostly forgettable, a cloying attempt to lighten up everyday rock attitude with a scholarly reduction of ska, and though No Doubt toured, record sales didn’t soar.  

 After an indie-released second album (The Beacon Street Collection) and a contract dispute, the band returned with its basic musical strategy for Tragic Kingdom, but this time the songs hit a sweet spot: The singles “Don’t Speak,” “Just a Girl,” and “Spiderwebs” were inescapable in ... 

 After an indie-released second album (The Beacon Street Collection) and a contract dispute, the band returned with its basic musical strategy for Tragic Kingdom, but this time the songs hit a sweet spot: The singles “Don’t Speak,” “Just a Girl,” and “Spiderwebs” were inescapable in ... 

 With Return of Saturn, ska and island rhythms are subordinated, and the band sounds emboldened, even experimental. The singles don’t reach out and grab you quite as aggressively–though some would say “Simple Kind of Life” is a quintessential Gwen Stefani whine–but the production and the... 

 The band returned in 2002 with the blazing single “Hey Baby” (sample lyric: “I’m just sipping on chamomile, watching boys and girls with their sex appeal”) and the dub-heavy, overtly poppy Rock Steady. It’s a culmination of sorts–partially recorded in Jamaica, the island flavor is s... 

 Following Rock Steady, No Doubt went on hiatus as Stefani embarked on a solo career, dressing in ever more colorful coutour and turning out shiny electro-pop on 2004’s Love.Angel.Music.Baby (which had the massive hit “Hollaback Girl) and 2006’s The Sweet Escape, both of which went platinum....