No Doubt’s New Single “Settle Down” — LISTEN

It’s been over a decade since No Doubt released their last studio album Rock Steady, which featured such Top 40 ear worms as “Hella Good” and “Hey Baby,” but it doesn’t really feel like they’ve gone anywhere. Between the ubiquitous (both on the radio and doing things just like us regular folk do in the tabloid pages) Gwen Stefani and the fact that, even though the ’90s are long gone, eccentric, sherbet-haired girls can still rule the charts (cue: Nicki Minaj).

On September 25, the SoCal-formed group will release their sixth studio album Push and Shove. On Monday, the band released their first single off the record, titled “Settle Down,” and it seems like they’ve done just that. No Doubt has adapted to the times and fans from their Tragic Kingdom days might be a little disappointed to hear the tamer 2012 version of the group. 

Granted, Stefani is now a mom and No Doubt was never really hard music per se, but any trace of edgier, more daring songs like “Spiderwebs,” “Just a Girl,” and “Ex-Girlfriend” all but evaporate in the chorus to “Settle Down” in which Stefani sings, “I’m hella positive/For real.” It’s certainly not a bad song (the breakdown at the end is worth listening for) and it should do remarkably well on any DJ’s summer playlist, it’s just something that No Doubt wasn’t for a very long time: sort of forgettable. 

Take a listen to “Settle Down” here and feel free to agree or disagree with me in the comments section below.

[Photo credit: Billy Kidd/Interscope]

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