No Doubt "Tragic Kingdom (USA, Trauma/Interscope Records, INTD-92580)

Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by American rock band No Doubt, released on October 10, 1995, by Trauma Records and Interscope Records. It was 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, the album spawned seven singles, including "Just a Girl", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and "Don't Speak", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and reached the top five of many international charts.

The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics and became the band's most commercially successful album, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 as well as topping the charts in Canada and New Zealand. At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, No Doubt earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. The album has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States and Canada, platinum in the United Kingdom, and triple platinum in Australia. Tragic Kingdom helped facilitate the ska revival of the 1990s, increasing the visibility and commercial success of other ska bands. The album was ranked number 441 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

No Doubt embarked on a tour to promote the album. It was designed by Project X and lasted two and a half years. An early 1997 performance at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim was filmed and released as Live in the Tragic Kingdom on VHS and later DVD.

No Doubt released their self-titled debut album in 1992, a year after being signed to Interscope. The album's pop-oriented sound contrasted with grunge music, which was popular in the United States when No Doubt was released. The album sold 30,000 copies; the program director of KROQ radio station, on which the band aspired to be played, said, "It would take an act of God for this band to get on the radio." The band began work on the album in 1993, but Interscope rejected most of their material and paired the band with producer Matthew Wilder. Keyboardist Eric Stefani eventually stopped recording with the band because he disliked having to relinquish creative control. He encouraged other members of the band to write songs but sometimes felt threatened when they did. Eric became increasingly depressed, and in September 1994, he stopped attending rehearsals, though they were usually held at his house. Bassist Tony Kanal then ended his seven-year relationship with Gwen Stefani.

The band decided to produce their next album independently and recorded their second album, The Beacon Street Collection, in a homemade studio. No Doubt's first two singles were released for The Beacon Street Collection: "Squeal" and "Doghouse", under their own record label, Beacon Street Records. Despite limited availability, the album sold 100,000 copies in the year of its release. Their independence attracted Interscope's attention and ensured that the label would fund a third album.

Tragic Kingdom was recorded in 11 studios in Los Angeles, starting in March 1993 and released in October 1995. During one of these recording sessions, the band was introduced to Paul Palmer, who had previously worked with Bush and was interested in working on No Doubt's new album. After mixing the first single with David J. Holman, "Just a Girl", Palmer and Holman went on to do the same to the rest of the record. He wanted to release the album on his own label, Trauma Records, which was already associated with Interscope, and succeeded in getting the contract.

The album is named after the nickname guitarist Tom Dumont's seventh-grade teacher had for Disneyland, which is in Anaheim, California, where the band members grew up. The album photography and portraits were taken by photographer fine artist Daniel Arsenault. Gwen is featured in the foreground while the rest of the band members are standing in an orange grove in the background. Gwen pushed for Eric to be included on the album cover—a source of tension for the band—reasoning that although he had left the band, he had still contributed substantially to the album. Eric is seen near the back of the picture, looking away from the camera. The pictures on the cover and in the liner notes were taken on city streets in their native Orange County (namely Anaheim and the City of Orange) and in orange groves. The red dress Gwen wears on the cover was loaned to the Hard Rock Cafe and was later displayed at the Fullerton Museum Center in an exhibit titled "The Orange Groove: Orange County's Rock n' Roll History". The dress, appraised as high as US$5,000, was stolen from the exhibit in January 2005.

Tragic Kingdom has been described as pop rock, alternative rock, ska punk, new wave, and pop-punk. The album also uses elements of pop, funk, punk, dancehall, disco, third-wave ska, post-grunge, ska,

 reggae, flamenco, and Tejano, among others.

Many of the lyrics on Tragic Kingdom were written by lead vocalist Gwen Stefani and were about her experiences in life. Those from No Doubt and The Beacon Street Collection were written mainly by Eric Stefani, who left the band after Tragic Kingdom was finished. Therefore, the style of music changed from what the band had previously produced. Dumont explained the change in sound in an interview for Backstage Online:

Well, there is a reason that the sound of our music has changed, and it's not because we've sold out—easy for me to say. Eric, our keyboard player, used to write most of our songs. He was the main creative force in the band for many years. And at a certain point after that first album came out, he had this personal thing, like he didn't like touring, he didn't like all that stuff. He just liked to sit down and write songs. That's him. He's the artistic side, the total Mr. Creative...[w]ell what happened is when Eric decided to leave the band it left the song writing to us, me, Gwen, Tony, the rest of us and it's a really natural thing for our song writing style to be different than Eric's. Just we're different people. I mean we've learned a lot from him and he taught us a lot of things about song writing, but we write simpler music. We have a simpler style. We're not quite genius like him, I think. This album was our first attempt. It was Gwen's first time really writing all the lyrics herself, so to me, it went the opposite from selling out—we have done something that is even more personal. In the past, Eric was writing songs about his life and having Gwen sing them. Now we have Gwen singing and writing about her own experiences. It makes it more natural. She's a singer, she should sing about herself or sing what she wants to sing. I think that is the main reason why our musical style has changed.

The first single released from Tragic Kingdom was "Just a Girl", which details Gwen Stefani's exasperation with female stereotypes and her father's concerned reaction to her driving home late from her boyfriend's house. It peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 10 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song also charted on the UK Singles Chart, where its original release peaked at number 38 and its reissue at number three. The second single was "Spiderwebs", written about an uninterested woman who is trying to avoid the constant phone calls of a persistent man. It reached number five on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, number 11 on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, and number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, but not until it was released after Don't Speak hit number one.

The third single was "Don't Speak", a ballad about the breakup of Stefani and Kanal's relationship. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and maintained that position for 16 consecutive weeks, a record at the time, although it was broken in 1998 by the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" with 18 weeks. The song was not eligible to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 because no commercial single was released, which was a requirement at the time. The song also peaked at number two on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, at number six on the Adult Contemporary chart, at number one on the Adult Top 40 chart, and at number nine on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. The song also appeared on several international charts, reaching number one in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom; number two in Austria, Germany, and Spain; and number four in Finland and France.

"Excuse Me Mr." and "Sunday Morning" were released as the album's fourth and fifth singles, respectively. "Excuse Me Mr." reached number 17 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 11 in New Zealand. "Sunday Morning" peaked at number 35 on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, number 21 in Australia, number 42 in New Zealand, and number 55 in Sweden. Composing the song began when Kanal was having a fight with Stefani, then his girlfriend, through the bathroom door of his parents' house in Yorba Linda, California. Stefani later changed the lyrics to discuss dealing with her breakup with Kanal. "Happy Now?" was released as the album's sixth single on September 23, 1997, but failed to chart anywhere. "Hey You!" was released as the seventh and final single from Tragic Kingdom; it peaked at number 51 on the Dutch Single Top 100. Despite being a Dutch-only single, a Sophie Muller-directed music video was filmed to promote the single.

Tragic Kingdom was first released by Trauma and Interscope on October 10, 1995. To promote the album, Trauma launched a street campaign that targeted high school students and the skateboarding community. No Doubt performed on the Warped Tour, which was sponsored by several skateboarding companies, and at several skateboarding festivals. The album entered the Billboard 200 on January 20, 1996 at No. 175 and did not enter the top 100 until February 3, 1996, when it jumped to number 89. Palmer attributed the jump to a Channel One News program that Stefani hosted in January 1996, which was broadcast in 12,000 classrooms, and the band's subsequent performance at a Blockbuster store in Fresno, California.

In May 1996, the band worked with HMV, MuchMusic, and the Universal Music Group to put on a global in-store promotion. The band performed and answered questions in MuchMusic's studios in Toronto, Ontario. The session was broadcast live to HMV stores worldwide and on a webcast so that fans could watch and ask the band questions through MuchMusic's VJs. Sales of Tragic Kingdom doubled the week after the event. The event's sponsors lobbied Guinness World Records to create a category for the largest virtual in-store promotion to recognize the event.

No Doubt embarked on the Tragic Kingdom Tour after the release of the album. It chose Project X, headed by Luc Lafortune and Michael Keeling, to design the stage. No Doubt suggested decorating the stage as a clearing in a forest. Project X created three anthropomorphic trees with glowing oranges. The show included clear and mylar confetti designed to look like rain. Lighting design was difficult because there were only four rehearsals, so the show was arranged to be flexible to allow for what Lafortune referred to as "a very kinetic performance". The band expected to tour for two months, but the tour ended up lasting two and a half years.

An early 1997 performance at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim was filmed and was released as Live in the Tragic Kingdom on VHS on November 11, 1997. It was re-released on November 25, 2003, on DVD as part of the box set Boom Box, which also contained The Singles 1992–2003, Everything in Time, and The Videos 1992–2003; and again on June 13, 2006, as a stand-alone DVD, containing bonus material of extra songs, a photo gallery, and an alternative version of "Don't Speak".

Track listing

All tracks produced by Matthew Wilder.

1. "Spiderwebs" Gwen Stefani/Tony Kanal   4:28
2. "Excuse Me Mr."   G. Stefani/Tom Dumont   3:04
3. "Just a Girl"  G. Stefani/Dumont  3:28
4. "Happy Now?"  G. Stefani/Dumont/Kanal   3:43
5. "Different People"  Eric Stefani/G. Stefani/Kanal 4:34
6. "Hey You!"  G. Stefani/Kanal  3:34
7. "The Climb" E. Stefani 6:37
8. "Sixteen"    G. Stefani/Kanal   3:21
9. "Sunday Morning"    Kanal/G. Stefani/E. Stefani  4:33
10. "Don't Speak"   E. Stefani/G. Stefani  4:23
11. "You Can Do It"   G. Stefani/E. Stefani/Dumont/Kanal  4:13
12. "World Go 'Round"    Kanal/G. Stefani   4:09
13. "End It on This"  G. Stefani/Dumont/Kanal/E. Stefani   3:45
14. "Tragic Kingdom" E. Stefani 5:31

Total length: 59:35

 

Recording information:

Recorded at: Total Access (Redondo Beach)The Record Plant (Hollywood)Santa Monica Sound (Santa Monica)NRG (Los Angeles)Rumbo Recorders (Los Angeles)Mars (Burbank)Studio 4 (Santa Monica)Grandmaster (Hollywood)Clear Lake Audio (North Hollywood), Red Zone (Burbank)North Vine (Hollywood)

Matthew Wilder – production

Phil Kaffel – recording (tracks 3–10, 14)

George Landress – recording (tracks 3, 6, 7)

Matt Hyde – recording (tracks 1, 2, 13)

John "Tokes" Potoker – recording (tracks 11–13)

Ray Blair – recording (track 5)

David J. Holman – mixing at Cactus Studios (Hollywood)

Paul Palmer – mixing at Cactus Studios (Hollywood)

Robert Vosgien – mastering at CMS Digital (Pasadena)

Morbido / Bizarrio – creative direction, design, digital imaging

Dan Arsenault – photography

Shelly Robertson – photography

Patrick Miller – photography