Released in 1992 amidst the wave of grunge and the slacker generation, the debut album from Orange County ska-popsters No Doubt was of little fortune. Dropped from Interscope shortly after its release, it has and continues to be sorely overlooked after platinum-selling Tragic Kingdom hit the charts.

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With a band spanning 15 years that can only attest to popular knowledge under the guise of grossly successful chart favourites like Don’t Speak and Hey Baby, it’s a shame that No Doubt has been dismissed as perhaps a bit of a false start and the shunning of their apparent roots. No Doubt embodies what pop should be about, today. Genuine musicianship, songs about inane topics (having your wisdom tooth pulled and getting back together) and moreover plain good tunes. However, it is clinically produced and stolidly mixed. You do get the feeling you have been left out on the doorstep, rather than invited to the party on the inside.

Granted there are at least a couple of awful tracks here, Sad for Me and its crimes-against-sound synthesized oboe/flute/generic-MIDI-wind-lnstrument, Paulina’s white-boy reggae (but at least they admit it) and the literal filler A Little Something Refreshing. What remains, however, is an eclectic mix of two-tone ska, funk, revitalised 80s pop and a little bit of hair-metal. And it is this eclecticism that makes the album shine.

Front-woman Gwen Stefani’s proto-Madonna vocal strength pulls the album through, but it’s not a solo effort. The prevalence of superb slap-bass from Tony Kanal and guitarist Tom Dumont’s cheeky metal riffs and rapid skanking led by the hi-hat happy beats of Adrian Young provide a solid and varied backing to the whole sound. Curiously enough Young actually lied that he could play the drums before joining the band, but it doesn’t show in the album and he appears both tight and accomplished. Dumont joined the band after being heard in a rehearsal studio playing LA metal, and Kanal and Stefani’s relationship was basic formula for the other band members after original member John Spence committed suicide in the late 80s. Stefani’s fame-shy brother Eric provided keyboards and the lyrics that are silly as they are heartfelt, only to later leave the band to animate for the Simpsons.

BND, a short instrumental opener providing a bookending motif with closer Brand New Day is a great example of the sound of the album. It’s got brass, there’s a fat bass pulling and popping away and the guitars are skanking and ripping out distorted powerchords. The first half of the album is where the quality lies, after which it starts to fall a little foul but the swing fused ska of Trapped in A Box (there’s even a banjo there backing a power guitar solo) and the saccharine but inviting ballad Sometimes lift it back up.

Let’s Get Back gives us homage to the 80s synth with nifty breaks, a great middle-8 brass solo and a head-nodding groove. Ache, the aforementioned toothache song, is more the Orange County ska end of the album – the result being an Americanised Madness. Move On gives us our quotient of metal riffing and fast drums, with an ode to the band’s construction “Five reached the side one step below Zen, One was a female, four were mad-men, Who moved on, moved on moved on”. No Doubt’s anthem if you like, with a superbly showy widdle-rock solo.

In retrospect it’s not a patch on their subsequent self-released Beacon Street Collection, and it’s certainly not going to be a contender for a ‘Best Album’ award, but if you’re after a well-crafted album that’s just about having fun with a little bit of substance, then No Doubt is a good place to start.

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