Rock Steady (album)

Rock Steady (album)

Rock Steady is the fifth studio album by American rock band No Doubt. It was released on December 11, 2001, by Interscope Records. The album was a commercial comeback for the band, surpassing sales of their previous album Return of Saturn. It spawned four singles, two of which won the Grammy Award for Bestpop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

About Rock Steady (album) in brief

Summary Rock Steady (album)Rock Steady is the fifth studio album by American rock band No Doubt. It was released on December 11, 2001, by Interscope Records. The band began writing the album with initial recording sessions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, then traveled to London and Jamaica to work with various performers, songwriters, and producers. Sly & Robbie, the Neptunes, and William Orbit were among the many artists the band collaborated with on the album. Rock Steady received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards. The album was a commercial comeback for the band, surpassing sales of their previous album Return of Saturn. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 316 on its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It spawned four singles, two of which won the Grammy Award for Bestpop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The group collaborated with producers Nellee Hooper and Timbaland, and brought in dancehall toasters Lady Saw and Bounty Killer, and Steely & Clevie, who produced \”Start the Fire\”. The band then worked with former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek in late June for the record The band worked with producer The Neptunes and former Cars and A&R manager Mark Williams for its second album, A& R&R & A&M. The Timbal and Dr. Dre-produced song titled \”Wicked Day\” was excluded from the album because their hip hop sounds did not work well on the record. As a result, the album’s instrumentation contains less guitar and bass than the band’s previous album’s.

Many of the songs were written with the band members not playing their standard instruments when working on the songs. The songwriting process was faster than previous albums, as Gwen Stefani wrote her lyrics quickly in comparison to previous records, and dealt with topics ranging from partying to ruminations on her relationship with Gavin Rossdale. She wrote the lyrics quicker and on the spot to meet the goal of writing a song a day. In late August, the band returned to London to polish off the songs with Mark Stent to polish them off for the third album, which was released in September. The first single, “Underneath It All,” was written in only 10 minutes by Stefani and produced by Eurythmics member David A. Stewart. The next month, Stefani left Los Angeles for London to visit boyfriend Rossdale, and the band traveled with her to finish recording “Detective” The band would often have Red Stripe beers or rum and cokes with jerk food for breakfast, with an after-party following the session. During a discussion over dinner in late 2000, the group members decided they wanted to explore dancehall-style rhythms for their next album. The group often tried recreating beats from other song files on the computer, which resulted in modified versions of the original rhythms. They saw this as a way to preserve the \”initial spark\”, according to guitarist Tom Dumont.