I don’t like No Doubt. I want to, because Amy does, and because occasionally they’ll come out with a song that has some pretty good music (“Hella Good,” “Simple Life”). But I can’t get past Gwen Stefani’s Betty Boop voice. It just totally rubs me the wrong way. It’s only marginally better than Britney Spears’s, honestly. At least she doesn’t do all those guttural noises that Britney does, but the warbling she did when she’d hold notes on her early songs (“It’s just those little things that I feaeaeaeaeaeaeaear”) are just as bad. No matter what emotion she’s going for, I remain unconvinced. And I REALLY want to like “Hella Good,” did I mention that? That’s a badass synth riff they’ve got going there. Gary Numan’d be proud.
Another interesting thing about “Hella Good” is that you can take out her vocals and put in Madonna singing “Music” and it’d work perfectly. Has this been done on the Internet yet? Ken, are you listening?