Music
Push and Shove
No Doubt aren’t just 11 years older than they were when they released their last LP. They’re determined to be wiser. Push and Shove leans toward synthpop-flavored ballads with grown-up themes: relationship struggles, the rewards of long-term romance. The songs are catchy, but Gwen Stefani doesn’t have the voice, or the gravitas, for grandiose tunes. And do we really want a “mature” No Doubt record, anyway? The band sounds more at home on the title track, a ska/dub fusion where Stefani rhymes “La-la-la-la vida loca/We speeding it up like soca.” That’s the No Doubt we love: hopped-up ambassadors from a fairy-tale SoCal where la vida is, eternally, loca.
Listen to Push and Shove: