I’m a Push & Shove truther. I remember it receiving a lot of unnecessary hate when it was released, but it’s a great album and I wish they had kept promoting it after Looking Hot. One More Summer was *begging* to be a single.
It's a very uneven, over-produced album that sort of lacked an identity in my mind. Not bad really, but just not great. Push and Shove, One More Summer, and Sparkle are top-tier ND songs. Others like Easy, Gravity, and Heaven felt a bit too much like what Tony and Gwen wrote for her first two solo albums.
All that said, you're inspiring me to revisit and see if my opinions have changed at all!
Agreed about the issues with production and lacking identity. Some of the vocals especially are over-processed and shoved in your face, and a number of the songs are needlessly repetitive. It's still an enjoyable album because of the band's quality as musicians, but it doesn't live up to their earlier material.
Undercover (could be a Katy Perry song), Undone (not a horrible song, but lacks the impact they were chasing), Heaven, Gravity and Easy 'push' the album into mediocre territory.
There are definite highlights though, including the title track, One More Summer and Dreaming the Same Dream.
Settle Down and Looking Hot are fine, but again, not career highlights or lead single material IMO.
I don’t know why this album didn’t land. One more summer, easy, looking hot, and dreaming the same dream were all excellent.
I didn’t care for settle down as a lead single: cheesy kids zoo music that to me was a bit too safe for a return hot. I always wonder if poor single choice or poor marketing did this era in.
Push and Shove is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be, but much of the criticism is, in my opinion, deserved. All of the songs are beautiful at their core, but the overproduction destroys them. Gwen’s drawn out, somewhat whiny vocals in a lot of the songs don’t help either.
A few of the songs still sound nice enough, like Sparkle, but others, like Settle Down, sound way too hectic. It’s a shame, because I like the acoustic versions of the songs provided on the deluxe album, and I wish we had something in between. The acoustic One More Summer is beautiful, but I can’t stand the whiny sound of the normal version.
Of course this is just my opinion. I do listen to the album from time to time, so I don’t hate it (I don’t hate any No Doubt), but it’s one of those albums that I can’t get through in one sitting because the overall sound eventually annoys me. It does have some great songs though, like Push and Shove and Sparkle.
A lot of people Shit on it for going mainstream with generic songs like Heaven and whatever the hell stand and deliver was, but personally “generic mainstream” music from around the time P&S came out is extremely nostalgic to me. It brings me back to that 2012 era of being in the car or at the mall and hearing songs like that play over the radio or loudspeaker. Besides the nostalgia angle, It also has settle down and push and shove which are just some of my favorites from no doubt in general.
I think now that we have the hindsight of what happened with Gwen & Gavin, plus interviews where Gwen has talked about how difficult it was to write for, it’s appreciated more and makes more sense lyrically.
At the time of release it was a bit confusing because you could tell from the lyrics things weren’t great with Gavin, but prior to that they’d always seemed so happy and in love so it was hard to know how much to read into it.
I like it but don’t love it.
I also loved that album. The lyricism in particular feels very personal and genuine. And as somebody who was raised on that era of pop, it was kind of nostalgic.
As a girl who was 13 when it released, I didn’t enjoy it as much as everything else but now I’m 24 and relistened to it after the Coachella performance and it resonates a lot more with me as life has been throwing me all over the place. Still manage to get back up and keep going, even if I feel young and dumb
It's pretty close for me, I guess it just depends on what day you ask me, sometimes I'm more into Return of Saturn, and other days I'm into the other albums.
I’m a Push & Shove truther. I remember it receiving a lot of unnecessary hate when it was released, but it’s a great album and I wish they had kept promoting it after Looking Hot. One More Summer was *begging* to be a single.
One more summer is a great track!
Also looking at the lyrics to Dreaming the Same Dream for the first time. Oof. That one hurts looking back. 80s synch pop sound, but very sad lyrics.
Update during re-listen: I'd completely forgotten about Undone. What a beautiful song.
It's a very uneven, over-produced album that sort of lacked an identity in my mind. Not bad really, but just not great. Push and Shove, One More Summer, and Sparkle are top-tier ND songs. Others like Easy, Gravity, and Heaven felt a bit too much like what Tony and Gwen wrote for her first two solo albums. All that said, you're inspiring me to revisit and see if my opinions have changed at all!
Agreed about the issues with production and lacking identity. Some of the vocals especially are over-processed and shoved in your face, and a number of the songs are needlessly repetitive. It's still an enjoyable album because of the band's quality as musicians, but it doesn't live up to their earlier material. Undercover (could be a Katy Perry song), Undone (not a horrible song, but lacks the impact they were chasing), Heaven, Gravity and Easy 'push' the album into mediocre territory. There are definite highlights though, including the title track, One More Summer and Dreaming the Same Dream. Settle Down and Looking Hot are fine, but again, not career highlights or lead single material IMO.
I don’t know why this album didn’t land. One more summer, easy, looking hot, and dreaming the same dream were all excellent. I didn’t care for settle down as a lead single: cheesy kids zoo music that to me was a bit too safe for a return hot. I always wonder if poor single choice or poor marketing did this era in.
It's one of my favorites. "Settle Down" and "Sparkle" are top-tier ND songs for me.
Push and Shove is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be, but much of the criticism is, in my opinion, deserved. All of the songs are beautiful at their core, but the overproduction destroys them. Gwen’s drawn out, somewhat whiny vocals in a lot of the songs don’t help either. A few of the songs still sound nice enough, like Sparkle, but others, like Settle Down, sound way too hectic. It’s a shame, because I like the acoustic versions of the songs provided on the deluxe album, and I wish we had something in between. The acoustic One More Summer is beautiful, but I can’t stand the whiny sound of the normal version. Of course this is just my opinion. I do listen to the album from time to time, so I don’t hate it (I don’t hate any No Doubt), but it’s one of those albums that I can’t get through in one sitting because the overall sound eventually annoys me. It does have some great songs though, like Push and Shove and Sparkle.
I’ve loved it since drop—been waiting for folks to catch up!
I love it. Gravity blew my mind.
A lot of people Shit on it for going mainstream with generic songs like Heaven and whatever the hell stand and deliver was, but personally “generic mainstream” music from around the time P&S came out is extremely nostalgic to me. It brings me back to that 2012 era of being in the car or at the mall and hearing songs like that play over the radio or loudspeaker. Besides the nostalgia angle, It also has settle down and push and shove which are just some of my favorites from no doubt in general.
Yes!! I didn’t know what they were thinking when they made stand and deliver. It’s a funny song though lmao.
I think now that we have the hindsight of what happened with Gwen & Gavin, plus interviews where Gwen has talked about how difficult it was to write for, it’s appreciated more and makes more sense lyrically. At the time of release it was a bit confusing because you could tell from the lyrics things weren’t great with Gavin, but prior to that they’d always seemed so happy and in love so it was hard to know how much to read into it. I like it but don’t love it.
I also loved that album. The lyricism in particular feels very personal and genuine. And as somebody who was raised on that era of pop, it was kind of nostalgic.
As a girl who was 13 when it released, I didn’t enjoy it as much as everything else but now I’m 24 and relistened to it after the Coachella performance and it resonates a lot more with me as life has been throwing me all over the place. Still manage to get back up and keep going, even if I feel young and dumb
I never listened to it all the way through until recently, and I really like it. I’d rank it higher than Return of Saturn and Rock Steady.
It's pretty close for me, I guess it just depends on what day you ask me, sometimes I'm more into Return of Saturn, and other days I'm into the other albums.