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Gwen Stefani and No Doubt’s greatest songs – ranked!
As No Doubt reform for Coachella, we pick out the best of their lead singer’s variously romantic and splenetic oeuvre – from Don’t Speak to Hollaback Girl
From Gwen Stefani’s debut solo album, Love Angel Music Baby, this is a Nellee Hooper-produced diversion into R&B slow jam territory: G-funk synths, a sample from the Isley Brothers’ early 80s quiet storm classic Between the Sheets, a guest appearance from Gavin Rossdale (speaking French! In between the hits on Love Angel Music Baby lurked an appealingly ludicrous collaboration with André 3000(credited as Johnny Vulture) that seemed to spring from the same well of boundary-free creativity as his contributions to Outkast ’s later albums: fizzy synth, distorted rock guitar and cutesy harmonies over a stammering, warp-speed rhythm track. Inspired by Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust and a bit of snark aimed Stefani’s way by Courtney Love – “She’s the cheerleader and I’m out in the smoker shed” – Hollaback Girl sets its pissed-off but defiant lyrics to a impressively stark backing made of clattering drums and honking synths.
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