Evolving nicely

No Doubt matures with new album, worldwide stage

July 12, 2000
Web posted at: 10:22 a.m. EDT (1422 GMT)

From Mark Scheerer
CNN Showbiz Today Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- There's a slightly different sound coming from No Doubt these days. With "Return of Saturn," its first album in five years, the band has moved further from its ska roots, but not too far from what made it a pop-rock success.

"It sounds like No Doubt, but it sounds like the evolved, mature version of ourselves, the more experienced version," said lead singer Gwen Stefani. "I don't know how else to describe it except (as) 'Us -- but better than we used to be.'"

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Since the 1995 release of "Tragic Kingdom," the foursome from Orange County, California, has devoted a lot of time to touring and TV appearances.

"I think that all of that touring and all that experience behind us had a huge impact on us," Stefani said. "There was a lot of information there to put into this album."

The time and the touring also gave the band time to reflect on just how far it has come.

"We felt really complete and really fulfilled after the last record," she said. "I mean, we were a garage band that got to experience being a worldwide pop band with a song that will probably be around when we're dead."

That song is "Don't Speak," a tune whose continuing popularity confounds Stefani.

"I still don't get what is so special about that song," she said. "That's the mystery of writing songs: If you could figure it out, you'd just do it all day long. We haven't figured it out yet."

Stefani was struck by the song's worldwide reach.

"To have people in India singing it back to you -- they don't even speak English, yet they totally get it," she said.

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No Doubt

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