File Under: Pop/Punk/Ska rating: B tracks 1. Just A Girl 2. It's My Life 3. Hey Baby - featuring Bounty Killer 4. Bathwater 5. Sunday Morning 6. Hella Good 7. New 8. Underneath It All - featuring Lady Saw 9. Excuse Me Mr. 10. Running 11. Spiderwebs 12. Simple Kind Of Life 13. Don't Speak 14. Ex-Girlfriend 15. Trapped In A Box related links No Doubt Interscope Records

Gwen has always been just a girl, and No Doubt's newest releases The Singles 1992-2003 is just a singles collection; nothing more, and nothing less. In a day and age where albums are coming out with everything from accompanying DVDs to Playstation games, this album offers little more than accessibility. However, it is a chronicle of one of the most recognizable and continually successful bands out of the 90s, and who would have thought that that band would have started out playing Ska of all things.

No Doubt is the Madonna of the 90s (complete with the making out with other hot musicians' thing). They started with a little splash in a big pond back in 1992 with the release of the single "Trapped in a Box." A few years later it was as if that same big pond was hit with an asteroid when No Doubt released "Just a Girl," and it has pretty much been one successful release after another since then. They are truly one of the only bands that are still enduring a successful career in the mainstream from that period of the 90s.

The Singles 1992-2003 is only their singles collected all on one disc, which is a good thing; because most people know every track on this album due to the massive amount of airplay that each one has received since their release. The bad thing is, this album obviously isn't for No Doubt fans, simply because their fans would already have all these tracks if they owned the original albums they were released on. The only new addition on The Singles is the cover song "It's My Life," (no not the Bon Jovi song, Thank God) a very well done cover of the widely loved Talk Talk track, worth the iTunes download at the very least.

It however could have been tailored specifically for fans had the videos been included. If this disc was released as a two disc set, the second containing a DVD of all the videos that are for each of their singles, this album would have become a must own for any one time Gwenabe. At the very least a handful of the videos should have been included instead of making fans go out and buy their newly released box set for an extra thirty bucks to see some videos and get some rarities.

Each track on this album is a very singable and loveable tune for any fan of uppity, happy music, and to every No Doubt fan the world over. Unfortunately, you aren't really getting anything extra here if you already own the bands previous releases. The only thing that fans might enjoy is the liner notes which include a background on what each song is about. Other than this, this track might be more for the youngins who are just learning about No Doubt today, and not for the 20somethings that have been around since Tragic Kingdom, and even before. I can be sure of one thing, this will not be the last time we hear from No Doubt.

Jason Cipriano is the Senior Editor. Contact him at jasonc@rockzone.com.