I was teased for buying this album a few years ago by my friends, who laughed at how tragically unhip No Doubt were. Indeed, I had always considered No Doubt to be a bit of what I call a 'nothing' band, a band who are pretty meaningless and who, if they were suddenly removed from existence (in some bizarre twist of fate), the music scene would not be affected a single iota. Look around and those kind of bands are everywhere - Turin Breaks, Placebo and Maroon 5 being two prominent examples. No Doubt were desperately uncool and credibility-free, troubling the charts with their soft rock anthem 'Don't Speak', while previously they had been at the forefront of one of the most repugnant genres in the entire history of modern music, in the form of American ska-punk. So I thought buying 'Rock Steady' would result in my coolness, and inevitably my popularity, rapidly declining, and I would be forced to carry a bell around with me like a leper and announce my unclean presence whenever a social occasion arose.

And it's not that this case of pop revisionism was accidental, either. Indeed, it seems very curiously studied, plotted and methodically executed. A potted history of No Doubt: formed in 1986, the band bubbled away on the punk circuit for a number of years, with no success to speak of, until 1995 and their 'Tragic Kingdom' album, a massive seller across the globe, spurred on by the anthemic break-up number 'Don't Speak'. And then… obscurity. No Doubt returned with 2000's 'Return of Saturn', an album overwrought with introspection and 'sympathise-with-me' lyricism, one which was unequivocally awful and a commercial bomb. It looked like the band were finished. However, they clearly weren't willing to give up their spot in the limelight just yet. Taking their inspiration from a revived hip-hop scene, plus Gwen's brilliant collaboration on the Eve/Dre masterpiece 'Let Me Blow Ya Mind', as well as dancehall reggae, No Doubt returned to the scene with an army of new collaborators and producers and voila, Operation: Become Cool was suddenly restored.

Noteworthy is the amount of collaborators there are on this album, with such luminaries as the Neptunes, Prince, Ocasek, Nelee Hooper, William Orbit and Sly & Robbie putting in an appearance. The wide range of collaborators ensures a wide range of styles covered on the album, with each collaborator bringing a new influence to the mix. This can result in a somewhat disjointed feel, as the band shift from style to style with a very tenuous cohesion. It often feels like No Doubt were desperate to cover so many bases that it seems like a collection of thirteen singles rather than one cohesive album with a singular 'voice'. The one good thing about of the amount of collaborators, aside from the touches of quality that they bring, is that No Doubt's original style, ska-punk, doesn't rear its ugly head.