“Like the heat from the fire
You were always burning”
Taken from the album Rock Steady
US #3, UK #18, AUS #28
While No Doubt will be remembered as a fun party band, mostly due to that actually being true and somewhat due to Gwen Stefani’s dumb-but-amazing solo persona, but some of their absolute greatest songs are downtempo. ‘Don’t Speak’, ‘Running’, ‘Simple Kind Of Life’, and my favourite, ‘Underneath It All’. Utlising their newfound Jamaican influence, it would become one of their biggest US hits and won a Grammy.
Their beats have never been so laid-back and Gwen has maybe never sounded better. She’s not the greatest singer in the world, but she has a dinstinctive commercial tone. Britney Spears, Diana Ross and Madonna are some of the vocalists who have it despite lacking technical prowess, and like all of those Gwen more than makes up for it in emotion and personality.
Lady Saw absolutely kills her guest verse, it’s the best part of the song. Her accent, her flow, the lyrics, the way she comes in with “FOR REEEEEAL”, everything about it is great. She elevates the song just like Bounty Killer did on ‘Hey Baby’, and in a way Prince could only have dreamed of on ‘Waiting Room’. Even without her, though, ‘Underneath It All’ would be the most beautiful and best of all No Doubt’s ballad-type moments.
