https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZwDdwQbh4Q
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Loading... No Doubt – Don’t Speak
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I have almost zero nostalgia for No Doubt. Lots of other mid-90s bands, yes. But not this one.
I don't but I still love this song. My wife and I have a silly thing where whenever one person says "No doubt," in casual conversation, the other one comes back with, "Don't speak!" I don't know why we ever did that or what it even means, but it's our thing.
no nostalgia on my part as these guys never did much for me.
This about sums up my feelings on No Doubt.
I never cared for her singing; endlessly starting phrases on vocal fry and ending with a slide to the point that she sounds flat. Just plain lazy
Oh, but the cultural appropriation of the bindi is amazing!
I know a brilliant professor who has Tragic Kingdom as one of the top five albums of all-time, though Revolution #9 by The Beatles is also a top ten song from him. He's an interesting fellow.
That’s a textbook example of Minnesota “interesting.”
I also have a grudging respect for the fact that a band that sucked so hard at reggae kept attempting to use reggae beats.
Oof, you're not kidding.
I won’t argue about her technique*, but this performance in particular seems like an overrepresentative example. I don’t know where it’s drawn from, but sounds like the kind of rendition you get after a band’s been on tour for too long without a break: the singer’s voice is shot (bad technique will precipitate this faster, but it happens to good technical singers, too), the instrumentals are lethargic, and the stuff that made the song interesting has been crushed out by playing it every night for months on end.
* I’ll point to Janis Joplin all day long when vocal fry is cited as bad singing technique. It’s probably not great for a singer’s long-term vocal health, and it’s definitely a preference, but it’s not without stylistic merit when properly deployed. Now, vocal fry in regular speech in broadcast media? That’s inexcusable.
Janis Joplin did not utilize vocal fry, she just had a (wonderful) raspy voice. Vocal fry (or glottal fry) has been much more prevalent in the last couple decades; I blame Brittany Spears among others - almost every pop female does it now.
agreed. JJ was definitely not vocal fry.
also, definitely not just a female thing. my beloved CSH (who i guess is the nemesis of FJM here?) uses it frequently. i was even listening to a podcast with him and just talking i was like, dude, ease up on the VF. it's all over the place these days. maybe you couldn't tell, but this whole comment was done in vocal fry (or glottal fry).
If you’re limiting this exclusively to the creaky sort of fry, then yes, I’ll go along with that. Otherwise, no, hers was not a purely natural voice; that rasp is from vocal trauma.
Fry is defined as as low register and is different from saying someone's voice is "fried".
Whenever I think about vocal trauma, I think about Harry Nilsson.
Should I know who "CSH" is?
CSH
Everytime I read the acronym here, it takes me a little while to realize we're not talking about Michael Schur.
"Hollaback Girl" was on XM Radio* last night. Still enjoyed it.
I've found Ms. Stefani's solo work since about that point to be so much less.
You guys definitely have a worse opinion of No Doubt than I do, I found the uptempo singles off Tragic Kingdom and Rock Steady pretty good. I mean, Bounty Killer had a top-10 hit in the US!
*One month until the subscription lapses. I'm milking it for what I can. Pitbull's station is still the best. Except when Pitbull's songs are on it.
I liked Tragic Kingdom when it was everywhere, and I still don't hate them. I just never find myself thinking "I should add some No Doubt to my playlist".
Exactly this for me.
I was fairly fond of them in the day. I actually really like the self-titled album and get "Trapped in a Box" stuck in my head from time to time today.
Tragic Kingdom I liked a fair bit, but I honestly don't remember any of it but the singles. I came around pretty hard on Rock Steady but I haven't listened to it in like fifteen years. The first time I met my (now) good friend Fro, he had this old beast of a car and he just kept the radio tuned to KDWB. Literally every time we were in the car, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" was on. I don't particularly like the song but it always makes me think of that weekend.
Consider me a nostalgic No Doubt fan, though I think mostly that's going to be my familiarity with their mainstream singles. This performance seems a touch underwhelming which may speak more to actual musical abilities vs modern technologies used in production of radio-ready music.
I will admit, though, to going on an extended rant a while back (lets call it Winter 2007, directed at SGT Edwards while on duty at the radio) about the virtues of Gwen in No Doubt vs whatever the hell she was up to artistically at that point.
Just so long as you don't disparage the first album of the "whatever the hell else". Hollaback Girl and I'll never doubt how to spell Bananas ever again.
Based on the number of comments, y'all seem to have taken "Don't Speak" to mean quite the opposite...
okay, since there are apparently a bunch of no doubt fans around here, i came across and considered playing this version:
different vibe, recorded in 1994, and per the video's description: "the original pre-breakup version with different lyrics." less vocal fry (or glottal fry). it also cuts off in the middle.