Lead singer Gwen Stefani demands a respectful, exclusive relationship and tells her man not to prattle on about old girlfriends (“In My Head”). “Running” and “Rock Steady” express a willingness to work at romance. A guy gets a second chance from the woman he disappointed on “Don’t Let Me Down.”
“Underneath It All” operates at two levels, one being subtly sexual. In fact, several songs on this disc tinker with double meanings. On the surface, “Hella Good” talks about dancing, though the activity these partners are engaged in may be more intimate. One line on “Detective” (“cottonmouth and all lit up”) could be an obscure reference to smoking pot. The band suggests that a couple’s problems can be solved by having sex (“Start the Fire”). On “Platinum Blonde Life,” a girl shuts out the world by pulling the covers over her head, saying, “I’m gonna close my eyes and maybe it will go away . . . I’m gonna sleep my life away.”
Rock Steady builds on a foundation of rock and synthetic pop, adding injections of punk and reggae. Lyrically, it treads a fairly innocuous middle-ground. The good stuff is nothing to write home about, yet the problem areas aren’t unduly explicit. Still, sexual undertones do exist.
