Review: No Doubt's 'Push and Shove'

No Doubt aren't just 11 years older than they were when they released their last LP. They're determined to be wiser.

"Push and Shove" leans toward synthpop-flavored ballads with grown-up themes: relationship struggles, the rewards of long-term romance.

The songs are catchy, but Gwen Stefani doesn't have the voice, or the gravitas, for grandiose tunes. And do we really want a "mature" No Doubt record, anyway?

The band sounds more at home on the title track, a ska/dub fusion where Stefani rhymes "La-la-la-la vida loca/We speeding it up like soca."

That's the No Doubt we love: hopped-up ambassadors from a fairy-tale SoCal where la vida is, eternally, loca.

By Jody Rosen, Rolling Stone September 25, 2012