Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by American rock band No Doubt. It was released on October 10, 1995 by Trauma Records, a division of Interscope Records. It is the final album to feature original keyboardist Eric Stefani, who left the band in 1994. The album was produced by Matthew Wilder and recorded in 11 studios in the Greater Los Angeles Area between March 1993 and October 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, seven singles were released from it, including “Just a Girl”, which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart; and “Don’t Speak”, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and peaked in the top five of many international charts. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, No Doubt earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide. The album was ranked number 441 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. (More from Wikipedia)
Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider worked with No Doubt on one of my favorite albums of the early 2000’s, Return of Saturn; Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic notes: “No Doubt’s desire to expand the emotional template of new wave is the perfect match for [Gwen] Stefani’s themes – she may be writing about love, but she’s not writing adolescent love songs. Fragments of her teenaged romantic fantasies remain, but she’s writing as a woman in her late 20’s. She’s tired of being another ‘ex-girlfriend’ – she wants to fall in love, get married, and have a family. It’s a subject that’s surprisingly uncommon in pop music, which would alone make Return of Saturn an interesting album. What makes it a successful one is that the band delivers an aural equivalent of Stefani’s lyrical themes. . . . Surprisingly, they pull it off – it’s a far stronger record than Tragic Kingdom, even if the catchiest numbers don’t have the same swagger and punch as their previous hit singles. So be it. With Return of Saturn, No Doubt have made a terrific, layered record that exceeds any expectations set by Tragic Kingdom. Not only have they found their voice, they know what to do with it.”
(April 2015/2)
