The earth may have orbited the sun 11 times since the last No Doubt album, but it”s hard to tell any time has passed in the Southern California band”s world on its new album, “Push And Shove,” out Sept. 25.
No Doubt”s last studio album, “Rock Steady,” came out in 2001-before the world had heard from Kanye West, Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. There have been seismic changes in the way that rap and rock and pop have intersected since then, not to mention how music is delivered. And yet, the four members of No Doubt seem to have been largely hermetically sealed in a time capsule for the last decade. If anything, on “Push And Shove,” the band looks back at the synth-drenched ’80s for inspiration, rather than to any of today”s hitmakers.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. By the time “Rock Steady” came out, No Doubt had done a wonderful (and tremendously) successful job of blending rock, pop and ska, while lead singer Gwen Stefani had perfected the alternately wounded bird/rising Phoenix trope that made her so appealing.
Marriage and motherhood have not quelled many of Stefani”s doubts, even if she can confidently boast in the horn-laden, rollicking “Looking Hot,” we are free to stare at her “ragamuffin…and take a picture please.”
The passage of time has given the band added musical confidence. No Doubt has always had a muscularity- bolstered primarily by Tony Kanal”s funky bass playing and Adrian Young”s robust drumming- that anchors its otherwise fairly lightweight melodies and lyrics. It is now accompanied by a pleasing certitude that replaces an earlier brashness.
Throughout the Mark “Spike” Stent-produced “Push And Shove,” the band skips through different beats and tempos with a firm hand that less assured acts could not pull off and that, at times, threaten to give the listener whiplash. First single, reggae-tinged “Settle Down” time shifts throughout, but it has nothing on the title track, which breaks down into a dub step section-in one of the few concessions to current musical trends. The song, a collaboration with Major Lazer, then transforms to running in slow-motion, as if dragging through tar. It then speeds up for a rapid-fire rap from Jamaican rapper Busy Signal (He’s this album’s Bounty Hunter.”). “Push & Shove” is a bit busy and overly ambitious, but No Doubt somehow pulls it off.
Underneath it all, Stefani is a throwback to girl group singers of yore -even if her vulnerability often comes with an armor veneer- and No Doubt is a pure pop band. A three-song arc midway through the album focuses solely on those aspects.
On the poppy “Gravity,” a love song presumably to husband Gavin Rossdale, Stefani ruminates on how lucky they are that their relationship has gravity that tethers the two of them together. “We”re in orbit/so we”re safe. Don”t let go/don”t ever let me float away,” she sings as laser effects torpedo through the song. It”s totally possible to imagine Belinda Carlisle singing this song 25 years ago, especially given the lighthearted, synth bridge.
For the peppy, sweet “Undercover,” those doubts creep back in. “I want to look down deep inside you and I want to come in but I can”t do it/I”m so scared of what I might find there.”
Things go from bad to worse on acoustic ballad “Undone,” the album”s most striking track.
The protagonist has fallen apart. “Just when it was getting good/why does it have to end/I don”t understand,” she sings as she pleads for her lover not to leave her behind.
The good times have returned by the boppy “Heaven” and the wistful “Dreaming the Same Dream,” both of which sound like outtakes from a Madonna album circa 1985.
“Push And Shove” is a solid, consistent album that isn”t afraid to embrace the multitude of styles that No Doubt has built its 20-year career upon. It”s the sound of a band that is very comfortable in its own skin, but still wants to challenge itself. At the same time, “Push & Shove” has nothing that seems as forward thinking or as career defining as “Just A Girl,” “Spiderwebs” or “Hey Baby,” though with a little wind beneath its wings, “Undone” could be this decade’s equivalent of “Don’t Speak.”