Ditched for good was the pretentious meandering that weighed heavily on their last album outing, Return of Saturn. It was so heavy with substance that it fell with a thud. What they have done instead is taken up with adventurous delight music’s most basic element – the beat, and sent it swinging with great exuberance and style.
Think dancehall or club music of a delightful sort, heavy on the beat, lean and mean in melody and you will get a very good idea of what the all-original Rock Steady is all about. Of course, the very fashionable hip Stefani’s little girl vocals remains No Doubt’s most identifiable trademark and this is very much around in the album. Take note that after the debacle of Saturn, Stefani resurfaced performing solo in collaborations with other artists, which did exceptionally well. These are South Side with Moby and the Grammy winning and huge selling Let Me Blow Ya Mind with Eve. She retains a lot of those different sounds in Rock Steady where they come spiced with No Doubt ska, synth-pop, reggae, new wave, soul and others.
No Doubt’s first single release is the totally infectious hip-hop laced Hey Baby. The group got this tune to sound this way with the very able help of producers Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, among several big name acts who worked on this new album. It is said in international music circles that if you want to do a great reggae record, the persons who will surely deliver what you want are Sly and Robbie. Well, they do in the case of Hey Baby and it looks like they have given No Doubt a big, big hit after a long, long time. Aside from Hey Baby, the Jamaican duo also did Underneath It All which Stefani co-wrote with Dave Stewart of the Eurthymics.
Other famous collaborators in the album are Prince with sweet boogie tune Waiting Room and Ric Ocasek who combines the sound of No Doubt and The Cars to come up with something different and interesting in Don’t Let Me Down and Platinum Blonde Life. Other great cuts in Rock Steady are the strutting hip-hop tune Hella Good, the reggae-flavored Start the Fire, the trance-like Making Out, the gorgeous love ballad Running, plus good old ska in Detective, In My Head and the title track.
Don’t miss out on this one.
• Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Songs I Heard by Harry Connick, Jr.
• New Age Album: A Day Without Rain by Enya
• Pop Instrumental Album: Reptile by Eric Clapton
• Metal Performance: Schism by Tool
• Rock Instrumental Album: Dirty Mind by Jeff Beck
• Traditional R&B Vocal Album: At Last by Gladys Knight
• Contemporary Jazz Album: M2 by Marcus Miller
• Jazz Vocal Album: The Calling by Diane Reeves
• Jazz Instrumental Solo: Chan’s Song by Michael Brecker
• Jazz Instrumental Album: This Is What I Do by Sonny Rollins
• Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Homage to Count Basie by the Bob Mintzer Band
• Latin Jazz Album: Nocturne by Charlie Haden
• Latin Pop Album: La Musica de Baldermar Huerta by Freddy Fender
• World Music Album: Full Circle/Carnegie Hall by Ravi Shankar
• Contemporary Folk Album: Love and Theft by Bob Dylan
• Musical Album for Children: Elmo and the Orchestra
• Spoken World Album: Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
• Musical Show Album: The Producers starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick
• Song for a Motion Picture or Television: Boss of Me from Malcolm in the Middle
• Instrumental Score Soundtrack: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Instrumental Composition: Cast Away (End Credits) by Alan Silvestri
• Recording Package: Amnesiac Special Edition by Radiohead
• Engineered Album: The Look of Love by Diana Krall
• Remixed Recording: Thank You (Deep Dish Vocal Remix) by Dido
• Historical Album: Lady Day, the Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, 1933-1994
• Long Form Music Video: Recording ‘The Producers’ A Musical Romp with Mel