Before Gwen Stefani let fame go to her head and release a couple insufferable solo albums, she was in a perfectly good pop / ska group No Doubt that released quite a share of hit singles. This is the Video collection.

The Videos

It's My Life - Gwen plays the femme fatale, looking like Marlene Deitrich in this stylish film noir type video. Does she fry for her crime? No doubt.

Running Gwen cavorts on the beach. Several nostalgic photos of the band are shown. This video is rather boring really.

Underneath it All Overdressed Gwen shows us whats underneath it all. I'm not a fan of L.A.M.B. clothing that Gwen designed, but the song is good. Eventually Gwen just bounces around in a t shirt and white skirt on a big bed.

Hella Good I recall an episode of the Simpsons where Bart described everything as Hella Good. This widescreen black and white video finds the band in some sort of deep sea adventure zipping about on jet skis. Who knew electric guitars worked when you poppoed up out of the salt water?

Hey Baby We join the band on their tour bus bouncing around at the beginning of this video. Then they go off to a party in a gym. Gwen looks fetching in a red bikini style top.

Bathwater video in a box video. You've seen this style video before. A box in which the various members of a band appear in a box dancing or swinging or whatever. I liked the song better than the video. Gwens Marilyn Monroe style platinum blonde hair looks nice.

Simple Kind of Life Has a glowing sort of video style to it. Gwen has a shocking pinkish red hair, she looks a bit more like a cross between Shirley Manson of Garbage and Pink than herself. Reds are exaggerated in this video and it does have an interesting look. However like many videos made for MTV whatever the song originally meant, the video doesn't do much to explain it. This looks like another one of those videos that was some music video directors ego trip.

Ex-Girlfriend Another song with great lyrics and a weird video. If I thought Gwens hair looked odd in the last video, in this one it is shockingly bright pink. Does the video itself make a bit of sense? Nope.

New I love this song, if you saw the movie GO you may remember this fast paced song with a hypnotic beat. Gwen tries to get into a hip club in this video. I don't know if the movie GO was released before or after this video was made, but no movie tie in is in the video.

Oi to the World A cool bass riff is delivered from the top of an elephant! No Doubt plays in the park. It looks like it was filmed in India.

Sunday Morning The band performs in a garage.

Excuse Me Mr. The band performs on an empty set. Soon they are joined by a variety of people popping in and out and dancing to the music. The video inexplicably jumps to Gwen being tied up to a railroad tracks like a Dudley Doright cartoon in the middle.

Don't Speak Sigh, another boring montage of the band in the studio and on stage. The song is fine, the video is boring.

Spiderwebs yawn. Oh they used a fisheye lens for this video, how creative.

Just a Girl This video at least sort of echoes what the song is about. Gwen is pushed to the side because she is just a girl despite her being perfectly capable. She also looks quite cute in a cheerleader outfit.

Trapped in a Box A single from their first album, this is actually a fairly creative video. They are shot in a small room which makes them look as if they are trapped in a box. It was also interesting to see Gwen prior to falling victim to her own sense of fashion.

Overall, I like the music of No Doubt better than the video collection. I have three No Doubt DVDs, this one and two concert sets. Although the videos are okay, none of them are particularly creative, and mostly just highlight Gwen in a variety of hairstyles and outfits. I like Gwen Stefani as a singer, but never quite fell for her the way I did Deborah Harry, Nina Persson, or Bjork. I also found it annoying to have to skip the bits between videos. Rather than just show the videos in this collection, each has a little behind the scenes nonsense. At least the tracks allow you to skip them, they each have their own track number.

Sound / Video Quality Sound is in Dolby Digital Stereo and video is in 4:3 and it is DVD quality. You can make out the tint in Gwen's hair in each video just fine.

Extras The extras are the back stage vignettes between songs, and alternate takes for a couple videos and an ad for Rock Steady Live.

Summary I like No Doubt, I think they had a lot of good songs, but this video collection is not as interesting as I would have hoped. I like the two concert DVDs much better. However, it is a very complete collection, and the audio and video quality is quite good. It also serves as a greatest hits collection. I give it three stars. A large part of three instead of four is my disdain for bands that put boring behind the scenes bits in between videos instead of separately like they belong. The other reason is just that the videos don't do much to expand on the music.

Related Links

No Doubt - Live in the Tragic Kingdom
No Doubt - Rock Steady Live

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD