No Doubt "Tragic Kingdom" [1995]

Just what ska should never have turned into: slick, overproduced hackwork. It took 30 years and two revivals, but "Tragic Kingdom" at last fully bastardizes the form, burying the genre beneath endless overdubs and keyboard patches, then slices and dices elements of toothless rock and tooth-achey pop, and dunks the whole thing in a hardening shell of sell-out gloss (this must be what the "Tragic" part refers to). It's baffling to think this CD was put out by an indie label; add it to the list of aesthetics this band knows nothing about. Fronted by blondie throat-warbler/Tae Bo instructor Gwen Stefani, No Doubt makes the song "Heart of Glass" sound earthy by comparison. Perhaps what this band actually consists of is a group of manufactured ska-bots. Nothing else makes quite as much sense.