In which we debate the continued relevance of this quartet…

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[5.12]

Jonathan Bogart: I wish the drums — the live ones, the ones that someone who is actually in No Doubt hit in a room in real time somewhere once — were higher in the mix; why bother doing all that smashing and crashing if you’re just going to bury it under reverb and hollow skanking? Major Lazer are fast wearing out their “reggae, but cool, like if white people invented it” sound, but as long as Stefani’s lipstick smear of a voice holds out it’s the perfect chrome accent on a shellacked surface.
[6]

Alfred Soto: If good pop stars steal, then okay ones merely like what they hear on the radio, and Gwen Stefani and her boys must have loved “Super Bass” as much as the rest of us: the rapped verses and yearning sung chorus. But this iteration, with its gunky synths and stupid exhortations, is misbegotten and desperate. Pushing and shoving for a hit is right.
[2]

Anthony Easton: Busy Signal is more interesting than No Doubt. No Doubt’s rock steady attempts at americanizing Caribbean music were more interesting a couple of decades ago. It’s marginally interesting that a song that talks about both hustle and pushing/shoving has not much of either. 
[4]

Brad Shoup: It grew on me: you’ve got the skanking with a side of toast in the verses, then a lurching chorus made for everyone at the show to do that patting-down-air hand thing. Gwen talks over Busy Signal about yoga cos write what you know.
[6]

Ramzi Awn: The verses may be chopped to bits, but the chorus — lush like honey, and heavy with a past — makes it all worth it.  Heartbreaking.            
[7]

Will Adams: I could carry on about how I don’t consider the fantastic chorus a dubstep breakdown – too often a derisive in music criticism – but that would distract me from acknowledging how excellent this is. Like last time, Gwen Stefani continues to put Santigold in her place, and mush-mouthed as the verses may be, her delivery of the chorus asserts her position on the throne.
[8]

Mallory O’Donnell: No Doubt clearly heard dubstep was supposed to be cool two years ago and then made the mistake of listening to actual dub.
[2]

Katherine St Asaph: No Doubt have presumably entered the “canned anthem” phase of their career. Hesitantly optimistic because I’m sure this will kill live.
[6]