The Friday Canon: NO DOUBT & GWEN

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The runaway winner of the last week's Canon Selecta was Gwen & No Doubt, whose first eponymous album has been priced at £3 in HMV for the last ten years! 18 hits overall, SIX ticks to dish out for our yodelling princess & her ska-punk chums.

[Poll #1097759]
Stevie Wonder: (link)

1. Superstition
2. Living For The City
3. Uptight (Everything's Alright)
4. Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours
=5. For Once In My Life
=5. Higher Ground
=5. Sir Duke
8. He's Misstra Know It All
9. I Was Made To Love Her
10. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

Comments

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Really difficult... That's a very good list of singles, that is.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Despite hearting Tragic Kingdom loads and loads I RLY didn't like Don't Speak. I hated it! And still kinda do! Just A Girl was so completely different that I mentally removed Don't Speak from No Doubt history.

I think my dislike was a combination of the following factors:
- difficult to play on the guitar, esp if the only bar chord you can do is F
- AWFUL video w/ Gwen sticking her chin out even more than usual
- TOTP playing the same 'live' performance every week for 10 weeks, with the ivy wrapped round the microphone and Gwen in a terrible flowery dress. I would CRINGE when those opening notes sounded and run away.

I couldn't believe it when Just A Girl was completely amazing after that! And the album was full of reggae! And fairground noises! I totally wanted to move to California and jump up & down a lot.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Don't spk is aces though.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is. I've been agonising over this list for a good 10 minutes before deciding which two of my 8 favourites to leave out. I'm not too upset about not having to tick 'Hey Baby' but I absolutely love 'Spiderwebs' so I'm gutted it had to miss out. For the record, the 6 ticks ended up going to 'Just A Girl', 'Don't Speak', 'Ex-Girlfriend', 'Hella Good', 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind' and 'Hollaback Girl'.

'Tragic Kingdom' was one of the defining albums of the 1990s. Discuss.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

I went straight to Youtube for a 'Spiderwebs' fix! What a song!

Don't Speak, Spiderwebs, Let Me Blow Ya Mind, What You Waiting For, Cool, and The Sweet Escape.

My favourites are Spiderwebs and Cool. Why does nobody else like Cool?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The only song there I would've liked to tick which missed out is 'Rich Girl'. Maybe 'Hey Baby' but not really. No idea how No Doubt stumbled upon 'Don't Speak' and 'Hella Good', the rest of their material just doesn't match up!

Gwenny Gwen Gwen obv is awesome on her own despite filler last album and refusal to release the only great song on it.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I've mellowed towards it in recent years (well now I'm not seeing that awful TOTP performance every week for a start!) but the rest of TK is 10000x awesomer.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah Cis seconded on 'Bubble Pop Electric'! Also lost gem on LAMB = 'The Real Thing'.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Early Winter's timetabled for release next year I think - if had been on the schedule for before xmas I would have included it here but sadly not :(

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Cool is ok but the rest are much better!

I think I tried to ebay TK a few years ago but there were 10000x copies up there for 1p so never bothered. I'm glad I didn't!

Excuse Me Mister (http://youtube.com/watch?v=aAiySyQxQwc) is worth a listen as well - released in the US but not over here.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I HEART 'Cool'. I can never decide whether she's lying to herself or not.

[cis.livejournal.com]

same for me -- and I'd heard 'just a girl' first (was orig the first single off trag king), so 'don't speak' was this absolute LETDOWN because it was so GIRLY and totally went against everything 'just a girl' was saying, omg. also all ballads suxxored. I like it now, a would-sing-at-karaoke amount.

[genie22.livejournal.com]

Agreed TK helped to define the nineties - ND were one of an explosion of girl-fronted groups back then.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

And 'Danger Zone', and the studiously faithful early Madge homage 'Serious'...

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of shocked that 'Rich Girl' is doing so badly - I wonder if it's the sentiment, the supposedly annoying "interpolation", or something else?

[cis.livejournal.com]

Also note that gwenny-gwenn-gwen's successful integration into rnb -> no doubt tracks becoming suitable sampling fodder -> Miss Dade County, 'just a girl' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts4TJ8sLzMI&feature=related) (photo montage: no real video yet it seems)

[cis.livejournal.com]

it's everything else being so damn good!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah same as Cis - I love it and didn't tick it! It's the worst of the LAMB singles which charted, ie worst in a field where all are winners. Also vote splitting between it and 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind'!

[datura800.livejournal.com]

'Cool' is the best Gwen/No Doubt song EVAH.

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

Don't Speak is far from great, I was in high school when it came out and it was the song that everyone seemed to be applying to their teenage tragedies, all looking sad and saying "I feel like this song is about when [name] [performed action]".

Also on TOTP, Gwen looking super-sad and frowny, just to show that she was having SO MANY EMOTIONS YOU GUYS.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Gwen was definitely a role model for me - even though I couldn't sing to save my life & Gwen didn't play a guitar! I think it was the lack of girliness (possibly why Don't Speak pissed me off so much!) & apparent respect she got from her bandmates (tho obv one of them was her brother and one of them she was shagging in secret, tsk how unrealistic, dunno any bands like that....)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(also Luxurious only got to no 45!)

quite an interesting canon

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

it seems like everyone is as conflicted about this as i was

Re: quite an interesting canon

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It is! Well done poptimists for voting for it. I think the relatively few ticks & broad(ish) range of musical styles is always good for tick-discussion :)

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Cool is great. And the Richard X remix is even better, it adds lots of sexy throbbing noises.