It's that time again! Time to sit down, grab a cup of hot cocoa, and dig through the CD library to find another of our favorite 20 albums from this wonderful decade.
Our next selection comes from OC Heroes: No Doubt, who departed from their signature ska-tastic sound to bring you 2001's Rock Steady, a dub inspired fusion of Gwen Stefani's enchanting soft voice, dancy beats, and sexy synth patterns. The band recorded much of the album in Jamaica and feature dancehall heavy hitters, Bounty Killer and Lady Saw.
Coming off the less than stellar performance of 2000's Return of Saturn, No Doubt decided to venture away from their normal musical stylings as they began to explore dancehall music in tour after parties. (more after the jump)
With some help from Dave Stewart, The Neptunes, and Sly and Robbie, No Doubt showed the listening public they could make a dance record about as well as any other pop group and they picked up some hardware on the way. "Underneath It All" and "Hey Baby" both picked up Grammy's for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. The album would eventually go on to 3x Platinum certification in the US.
I really appreciated this album as a departure from No Doubt's standard material and although Tragic Kingdom stands alone in my mind as their best album, Rock Steady is a great jammy CD to pop into the stereo for a long drive and still has some tracks that can get dance floors moving.
Well, that's four down, 16 albums to go. Check back early and often to us here at Metal Top Hat as we continue our look back....soon to come, a certain blonde gets dirty, some masks, and sexy comes back...thank goodness.
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