Tragic Kingdom

Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by American rock band No Doubt. It was released on October 10, 1995 by Trauma Records, a division of Interscope Records. It is the final album to feature original keyboardist Eric Stefani, who left the band in 1994. The album was produced by Matthew Wilder and recorded in 11 studios in the Greater Los Angeles Area between March 1993 and October 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, seven singles were released from it, including "Just a Girl", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart; and "Don't Speak", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay and peaked in the top five of many international charts.

The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, No Doubt earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide, and was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States and Canada, platinum in the United Kingdom, and triple platinum in Australia. Tragic Kingdom helped to initiate the skarevival of the 1990s, persuading record labels to sign more ska bands and helping them to attract more mainstream attention. The album was ranked number 441 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

No Doubt embarked on a tour to promote the album. It was designed by Project X and lasted two and a half years. An early 1997 performance at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim was filmed and released as Live in the Tragic Kingdom on VHS and later DVD. No Doubt released their self-titled debut album in 1992, a year after being signed to Interscope. The album's pop-oriented sound sharply contrasted with grunge music, a genre which was very popular at the time in the United States.[1] The album sold 30,000 copies;[2][3] in the words of the program director of KROQ, a Los Angeles radio station on which it was one of the band's driving ambitions to be played, "it would take an act of God for this band to get on the radio."[3][4] The band began work on their second album in 1993,[3] but Interscope rejected most of the material, which was written by Gary Angle,[5] and paired the band with producer Matthew Wilder. Keyboardist Eric Stefani did not want to relinquish creative control to someone outside the band and eventually stopped recording and rehearsing.[6] He encouraged other members of the band to write songs, but sometimes felt threatened when they did. Eric became increasingly depressed, and in September 1994, he stopped attending rehearsals, though they were usually held at his house.[7] He soon left the band to pursue an animation career on the animated sitcom The Simpsons.[6] Bassist Tony Kanal then ended his seven-year relationship with Gwen Stefani.[8]

The band decided to produce their next album independently and recorded their second album, The Beacon Street Collection, in a homemade studio.[3] No Doubt's first two singles were released for The Beacon Street Collection: "Squeal" and "Doghouse", under their own record label, Beacon Street Records. Despite limited availability, the album sold 100,000 copies in the year of its release.[3] Their independence attracted Interscope's attention and ensured that the label would fund a third album.[5]

Production
Tragic Kingdom was recorded in 11 different studios in Los Angeles,[3] starting in March 1993 and finally being released two-and-a-half years later in October 1995.[3] During one of these recording sessions, the band was introduced to Paul Palmer, who had previously worked with Bush and was interested in working on No Doubt's new album. After mixing the first single with David J. Holman, "Just a Girl", Palmer and Holman went on to do the same to the rest of the record. He wanted to release the album on his own label, Trauma Records, which was already associated with Interscope, and succeeded in getting the contract.[9]

The album is named after the nickname Dumont's seventh grade teacher had for Disneyland, which is in Anaheim, California, where the band members grew up. It is a pun on the popular nickname for Disneyland—"The Magic Kingdom".[10] The album photography and portraits were taken by photographer fine artist Daniel Arsenault. Gwen is featured in the foreground while the rest of the band members are standing in an orange grove in the background. Gwen pushed for Eric to be included on the album cover—a source of tension for the band—reasoning that although he had left the band, he had still contributed substantially to the album. Eric is seen near the back of the picture, looking away from the camera.[7] The pictures on the cover and in the liner notes were taken on city streets in their native Orange County (namely Anaheim and City of Orange) and in orange groves. The red dress Gwen wears on the cover was loaned to the Hard Rock Cafe and was later displayed at the Fullerton Museum Center in an exhibit titled "The Orange Groove: Orange County's Rock n' Roll History".[11] The dress, appraised as high as US$5,000, was stolen from the exhibit in January 2005.[12]

Lyrics
Tragic Kingdom uses elements of a variety of musical genres. Third wave ska and ska punk (a fusion of ska and punk rock) are the genres most prominent on the album.[13][14][15] The album also uses elements of new wave, pop,[16][17] and post-grunge,[13] and dance rhythms influenced by reggae, ska, flamenco, and Tejano, among others.[18] Apart from No Doubt's instrumentation, the album uses horn sections on several songs.[16]

Many of the lyrics on Tragic Kingdom were written by lead vocalist Gwen Stefani, and were about her experiences in life. Those from No Doubt and The Beacon Street Collection were written mainly by Eric Stefani, who left the band after Tragic Kingdom was finished.[19]Therefore, the style of music changed from what the band had previously produced. Guitarist Tom Dumont explained the change in sound in an interview for Backstage Online: