It’s been nearly six months since I last did an installment of the Decades series. That one covered the year 1985, and offered up a host of excellent albums.

Starting today, I’ll jump ahead ten years to 1995 and see if the output was as strong. That’s the year I turned 23, and I was pretty good about seeking out new music. So even though I consider the 90s a rather weak music decade overall, I didn’t have much trouble coming up with a list of 1995 albums I enjoy.

As usual, I will start with a countdown of my own favorite albums from the year before turning my attention to some critical and commercial successes with which I’m less familiar.

#10 – Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt

Pop-punk band No Doubt’s third album was released the same year as their second, the independently-released The Beacon Street Collection, but had a much different fate.

Previously, keyboardist Eric Stefani, older brother of lead singer Gwen, had been the band’s principal songwriter, but he quit over concerns that their first studio effort would require ceding control to outside producers.

So Tragic Kingdom was written mostly by the remaining band members, who clearly had a good sense of what audiences wanted to hear. The album’s more accessible sound, couple with the infectious stage presence of Gwen, propelled Tragic Kingdom to Diamond status.

Ska punk had a moment in the mid 90s, and this album is probably the best of it. It certainly captured me at the time. I was drawn to the energetic music and to Stefani’s expressive vocals, especially when she stretched into ballad territory on the great ‘Don’t Speak.’

That song somehow didn’t crack the Hot 100, and neither did ‘Spiderwebs,’ ‘Excuse Me Mr.,’ or ‘Sunday Morning.’ But lead single ‘Just a Girl’ made it to #23 and became a staple hit for both the band and Stefani in her solo career.

I can’t say I’ve listened to Tragic Kingdom much since the mid to late 90s, but skimming it while writing this blog post brought back some good memories of jamming to it back then.