The Salt Lake Tribune (March 29th 2002)

No Doubt returns to Utah, but it’s no comeback

Among the myriad television reports and magazine articles greeting No Doubt's latest album, "Rock Steady," the overriding theme was the Orange County quartet's "comeback."

It is an indication of the music industry's short-sightedness that a band has to make a "comeback" from an album that sold 1.5 million copies, but 2000's "Return of Saturn" is considered a failure as a follow-up to the band's 1995 breakthrough, "Tragic Kingdom," the monster album that went platinum 10 times over. Compared with the pop-ska pleasure of early hits like "Just a Girl" and the soaring power-ballad "Don't Speak," the songs on "Return of Saturn" seemed a conscious effort to be serious and adult, pushed by singer GwenStefani's overly sentimental lyrics to "Simple Kind of Life" and "Marry Me."

Most of the 10 million people who bought "Tragic Kingdom" did not want a serious No Doubt, and neither, it turns out, did the band. The backstage dance parties during the group's "Return of Saturn" tour inspired Stefani, bassist Tony Kanal, drummer Adrian Young and guitarist Tom Dumont to make a straight-up party album this time around. "

"Rock Steady" was recorded with some of the biggest producers in pop music: reggae legends Sly and Robbie, Madonna collaborator William Orbit, The Cars' Ric Ocasek, Prince. No Doubt even dabbled with hip-hop kingpins Dr. Dre and Timbaland, but those tracks did not make the cut for "Rock Steady."

"Last album we struggled," confirmed Dumont in an interview. This album, he said, was more relaxed. "As we were writing the songs, they kind of came out effortlessly, without the labor that we had to do on the last album.

"The cool thing about moving from producer to producer is that if we ever got a chance to get bummed out or really bored with any situation, if anything was going not so well, we only did two or three songs with everybody. . . . Mostly they were good experiences, just kind of short and sweet."

While using a series of producers on an album could have been disastrous (see Mariah Carey's "Glitter"), No Doubt makes the synth- happy New Wave sounds of the Ocasek-produced "Don't Let Me Down" fit perfectly next to Sly and Robbie's reggae-fied "Underneath It All" and the buoyant toasting of "Hey Baby."

No Doubt -- once the consummate Southern California pop-ska band with a world-view seemingly only as long as the group's Anaheim driveway -- is now able to pay homage to its influences by working directly with the sources, and traveling to Jamaica or London to do it. The result is the band's best album, and a lighthearted, funkier No Doubt.

In concert, No Doubt is one of the best live acts playing in the mainstream, a result of its 15-year history of performing at everything from backyard barbecues to stadiums. With backup singers, rappers and horn players contributing to the stage version of No Doubt, the shows are a musical and visual feast. And with all due respect to the guys bringing the noise, keeping your eyes off Stefani as she works a crowd is impossible.

No Doubt last played Utah as part of its 14-date stint opening for U2 in the fall. That a strong headliner like No Doubt considered being an opening act as an opportunity rather than a demotion says a lot about the band's attitude. The fact it debuted new songs like "Hey Baby" and "Hella Good" in a hostile environment, weeks before the songs hit the radio or the album was released, says a lot about the band's guts.

"We'd seen [U2] play earlier in the year and were kind of blown away by their show, and when the opportunity came up it just seemed like an easy way for us to kind of warm up for this album," Dumont said.

"It was also certainly a challenge, because their audience is very different from our audience. . . . It was only 14 shows, and it ended up being a lot of fun, but there were certainly nights when we went out and were like, 'Oh man, this is tough.' We were definitely playing for people who may have heard of us but weren't too familiar with what we do.

"Most nights it seemed by the end of our 40-minute set we had won a lot of people over."