The Beacon Street Collection was written in large part by Eric Stefani. But due to Interscope Records trying to lead the band into a music direction of their own choosing, he would eventually walk away from No Doubt to pursue an animation gig with The Simpsons rather than being told what to do. So, this album is very much in the same vein stylistically and soundwise as their Self-Titled debut. With hardly any support from their record company, they decided to build their own recording studio in their house on....Beacon Street, where they obviously get the name of their Album from. The entire recording process took all of a weekend to complete. Take THAT, Def Leppard!!!!!!

The original release of the album was minimal to their hometown. It wasn't until Tragic Kingdom exploded, that the record company reissued the album on a larger scale to capitalize from the momentum the band was generating.

As for the album itself, as before, this album relies heavily on their ska roots and I find it actually to be even better than the first. From top to bottom, it has a better overall cohesiveness with tighter songwriting and performances from the band. It's pretty amazing how well this came out given the fact that they did it all on their own, with no input from outside interferences.  If your a fan of ska and of course lots and lots of horns, this is definitely one to get. Highly recommended.

Fave Songs: All of 'em. Co-MVP goes to...Open The Gate and By The Way.

Album Cover? Not the best, that's for sure. I'd much rather the band went with the Back cover as the Front cover IMO. FYI, that's the house where they lived and recorded this album. You can see the house in all it's glory if you watch the Trapped In A Box music video as it was shot entirely on location. Unfortunately with zero support from their record company, no videos were released in support of The Beacon Street Collection. What a shame as there are a handful of songs that deserved being immortalized on film.