'Let's end it on this give me one last kiss' sang Gwen Stefani, circa 1995 on No Doubt's arguably most famous album Tragic Kingdom. But they didn't end. 'It's never gonna last, it's never gonna make it back alive' she later sang, in 2001, on their final album before they went on hiatus. Yet, last month, they finally did make it back and are more alive than ever, eleven years on.
This isn't a comeback to do with reinvention. They're largely the same. Tony Kanal still has his bleached crop. True, Gwen doesn't have blue plaits anymore and she's since dropped the bindis - she went from Goan hippie to Harajuku girl way back in her solo days - but she still oozes that 90s something-something that today's teens (who were born in 1990) are now "channelling." No Doubt have re-entered a market which loves the big smiley face, tie die, crop top style of an era that she champions so well.
Musically speaking they've still got that synthy, pop candy-meets-ska sound that could be a seamless continuation from 2001's Rock Steady, though they now have the likes of Diplo producing on the album. If the opening smasher Settle Down is anything to go by, it seems No Doubt have calmed down significantly from their days of yore. Gone are Gwen's schoolgirl antics, all pessimism ('I kinda always knew I'd end up your ex girlfriend'), jealousy ('in my insecure condition my pregnant mind is fat full of envy again') and vulnerability ('I'm waiting for him to rescue me, the funny thing is he's not going to come'). In other words, her own Tragic Kingdom.
The new album signifies a break from that. They're 'taking it easy' these days, conforming by 'hustling 9 'til 5' and, ultimately, 'settling down' - but not in a conventional way as the first two videos for singles Settle Down and Push and Shove suggest (they also hark back to earlier days). Gwen later sings 'we're so lucky' and 'you are my heaven', directed at husband Gavin Rossdale, the songs sounding like lyrical sequels to Underneath It All, also written for her husband. Perhaps this sugary sweetness is something to do with fact that her and former boyfriend Kanal recently (and publically) acknowledged the torture of going through their very public break up after seven years together - they were on tour at the time - which spurned heartbreaking songs like Don't Speak and Sunday Morning.
Of course, it wouldn't be a No Doubt album without a couple of melancholic references in there - Sparkle and Undone, namely - but these somehow seem altogether more nostalgic ('it's never gonna be the way it was, I still think of you so much') rather than the raw angst of the early days. There's even a cheeky nod to the teenage-like desire for self affirmation: "Do you think I'm looking hot? Do you think this hits the spot ?' Of course Gwen. Though she's grown up, the original bindi babe has still got it.
Push and Shove is out now.