I know just what you're thinking

On Fridays this year, we ask...

( What's in the Box? )

In The Box this week we have:

No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom

I have a nasty feeling that there a probably a thousand No Doubt fans out there ready to call me a sell-out: I don't own any albums before Tragic Kingdom, and I don't own anything after it either. I just own the album which had all the big hits on it.

When choosing which track to post, I went to consult Wikipedia to see which had been released at singles. The answer was pretty much all of them; I managed to hunt out one that hadn't been, but it was quite tricky.

So... No Doubt. Mostly famous as a vehicle for Gwen Stefani, I was vaguely surprised to find them described as a ska band. Actually, it's not unreasonable. Just custom and usage has led me to expect ska bands to be vaguely shouty and exclusively male. It's probably not helped that their most famous track, Don't Speak really isn't very ska at all.

No Doubt - Happy Now

[Poll #1154166]

It's just you, it's just me, and we'll never be together apart

Today my mummy and daddy took me to the seaside. It wasn't really playing-on-the-beach weather (though I have to concede Saltburn has a gloriously clean beach) so we just toddled along the pier, and peered into shops, and had a big fat lunch in a pub.

Saltburn is one of those towns which had a huge Victorian heyday, and is now struggling a bit. However, it's trying to build itself up again and there a few interesting little shops to poke round. And a deli which sells the most amazing-looking pies (it seemed a little unfair to buy one when my Dad isn't allowed pies these days).

If you stand on the beach and look to your left, you can admittedly see a nasty bit of heavy industry blighting the skyline. But other than that it's just smooth, golden sand, and the curvy headland of Hunt Cliff off to the right.

However, my particular delight in Saltburn today came from a ( burst of surrealism on the pier )

Update: LJ just went a bit mad, and in trying to fix it I think I've just deleted some people's comments. Sorry about that :(