Gwen Stefani writes really good lyrics. This occurred to me after my sister's iPod threw No Doubt's "New" at me the other day. I had forgotten about this song, but I was struck at how well her consult-the-thesaurus strategy works in conveying the tension and difficulty involved in explaining just why the sheer fact of novelty is something remarkable in itself. What is it for someone to be new, Gwen? Well, they're not old, and they're certainly not familiar... er... and come to think of it, to be new is to be different, different from the former. A bunch of synonyms, and the repeated mantra driven by urgent, manic drums and guitar: You. You're new. This song is the glory of stating the obvious.