No Doubt Scrap Tour To Record New Album

As comebacks go, No Doubt‘s ‘Push & Shove’ came and went like a thief in the night.

The album’s performance (or lack-thereof) surprised many industry analysts who perceived the group’s popularity was intact despite a ten year hiatus.

In learning the hard way that artists can’t “disappear” and remain relevant these days, the Pop quad mapped out a world tour to re-engage and rebuild their live fanbase.

However, in a somewhat surprising move, the Gwen Stefani led outfit have announced that they have cancelled postponed hitting the road to work on a new album altogether.

And while we already reported that the group are recording new material, it appears the project is coming together much faster than anticipated.

Read their announcement after the jump…

Via No Doubt:

Hi Everyone,

Greetings from the studio in Los Angeles…Yes, that’s right, the studio!

While we were traveling the world last year promoting Push And Shove, Gwen mentioned she was inspired to write new music. In December, around the time of our hometown shows, we discussed the idea of starting 2013 by getting back into the studio together. We did so in January and the new music started flowing with unexpected ease. After spending three years recording the last album, this new pace feels incredibly exciting.

We have decided to follow our muse for the time being and focus on this new music that we don’t want to stop. So, we will be postponing our tour plans briefly while we endeavor to create something special and inspired. Our goal as a band is to share this new music with you as quickly as possible – both recorded and live on tour.

As always, thank you all for your kind words, incredible support and patience. We promise to keep you updated with photos and videos from the studio, so be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram to get the latest updates. We will see you soon!

Love,
Gwen, Tony, Tom, Adrian
No Doubt

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To put it bluntly, it costs to flop.

Hence, we’re almost certain that this is as much about appeasing their label and fulfilling contractual obligations as it is about being “creatively inspired”.

Still, as keen appreciators of the group’s talent, it’s great to see them taking the right steps to stride towards success (again). Their new material showed promise, yet was neither innovative or generic enough to ensure their relevance to a new market of music buyers.

It’ll be interesting to see if this new album can connect in a way its predecessor couldn’t.