Come on now, admit it - who here likes/has liked the Cranberries?

"Zombie" by ADAM and Amy though is a terrific record.

That said, I came across my copy of it last time I was at my parents' house, put it on, and was surprised to find that I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know how spirited of a logical defense I could offer for them, apart from this: the band itself was really good at assembling standard-issue post-Smiths guitar-pop songs, leaving the overall goodness or badness of the result down to how the vocals were handled; on the first 1 and 1/2 records, the vocals were often restrained and unsentimental enough to make them work, in a Sundays- meet-Primitives kind of way.

Actually, let's just go with: I was 15, and I wasn't any Melissa-style musical-taste prodigy.

"Zombie" is very, very funny.

And yes, Brian, do tell. It's such a fun story.

[|24|\||33|2|2!3$ $|_|[|<, |_| |4/\/\3|25?

Or is subject-object disagreement a new facet of haxOr-speak?

at the end of my last post.

http://gygax.pitas.com

Uh? Bong Talk, Omar, bong talk ;)

**I think they lost it. But I also think they had it, or enough of it**

WHY? Pinefox, why??

I liked their first album, but they became annoying awfully fast. It's as if they lost all sense of subtlety and melody after that...

It probably didn't help matters much that Dolores is right up there with Celine Dion in the obnoxious harpie stakes -- which probably wouldn't have been so terrible except she was everywhere in the meedja for awhile.

A few years back, when you could say the words "The Cranberries are on their US arena tour" and not have people laugh, Cracker was the opening act. Members of Cracker were told that they were not to talk to or deal with the Cranberries at all, or any of their support crew or anything like that. David Lowery and company shrugged and thought, "Typical," and went on doing their thing. As time went on during the tour, they got to know a variety of people by sight and figured out what they were there for -- with the exception of two guys who never seemed to do anything. They were fans of Cracker, though, always by the side of the stage whenever they did their opener's set, cheering them on. Finally curiosity got the better of Cracker and some members tracked down these two guys in a quiet moment. After exchanging friendly greetings and all, Lowery or whoever flat out asked them, "So what do you guys *do*, anyway?"

The answer -- Ms. O'Riordan, besides singing, also plays acoustic guitar and piano on stage. Except...that below the stage, these two guys, one with guitar and one with piano, sit and watch the entire show on closed-circuit TV or the like. Basically, their job was to actually play the parts she was supposed to be playing!

Needless to say, I was terribly amused to learn this. Ultimately not surprised anymore, but still.

"Linger" can suck deze nutz, tho.

But God, their lyrics are as embarrassing as music has ever become: check ALL of the 'To The Faithful Departed' album for some real good belly laughs, especially I Just Shot John Lennon. It's the record where D discovers MTV News.

I'm fairly sure I'm not their favourite writer however, so perhaps I shouldn't be commenting.

...at this point I refuse to even think about their more recent records.

Truly, I have caused sorrow here.

"zombie" is one of the most wretched singles of the nineties. I fondly remember everett true/taylor parkes devastatingly funny review of one of their albums in the melody maker. i think i still have a clipping of it somewhere. i could post it here if anyone is interested???

So there.

A REAL TURKEY

Some people like THE CRANBERRIES. EVERETT TRUE and TAYLOR PARKES don’t.

THE CRANBERRIES
TO THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED

Reasons to hate The Cranberries.
1) Dolores O’Riordan. Her arrogance. Her petty small-mindedness. Her redneck worldview. Her incessant preaching. The fact you can actually see the mean-spiritedness of her thoughts imprinted on her pinched little face. Those American flag jumpsuits. Her cold love of money. The way she’s Sinead O’Connor for people who can’t confront even elementary contradictions. Her anti-abortion stance. Her absolute lack of self-irony. The way she makes even the most fundamental and wonderful emotions sound trite. The way America loves her cliched, stereotypical take on Ireland. Her reduction of serious political issues to 10-second sound-nibbles. Her dress sense. The obscene way she made legions of students slow-dance to the most crushingly banal political lyric (“And their tanks and their bombs and their tanks and their guns…”) since Paul McCartney’s “Give Ireland Back To The Irish”. That wedding.
2) Dolores O’Riordan. Her smug conceit masquerading as concern for all mankind.
3) Dolores O’Riordan. Her lyrics. The fact that no one in her obviously highly technological camp has bothered to buy her anything more than a Second Year rhyming dictionary. The fact that she sees fit to write a song about John Lennon – a bigoted, misogynistic, self-loathing, tantrum-prone asshole who also happened to write some great songs – 15 years after the event, and gloss over all his faults. The fact that she does so by writing the infantile lines, “It was a fearful night of December 8th/He was returning home from the studio late/He had perceptively known that it wouldn’t be nice/Because in 1980 he paid the price…With a Smith & Wesson 38/John Lennon’s life was no longer a debate.” The fact that every person in her camp is clearly so in awe of her (temper? Power? Capacity for retribution? Fragile ego?) that they didn’t take her gently to one side and go, “Er, Dolores, perhaps it’d be better if someone else wrote the lyrics…”
4) Dolores O’Riordan. Her videos. You know how much Dolores hates to be typecast as a “thick Paddy”? Has she actually watched any of her own videos? The way they reinforce received notions of Ireland as a backwards country populated entirely by broken-toothed, bowl-headed, crying schoolkids in grey V-neck jumpers dancing around streets lit by the occasional Armalite flare? And the odd horse – y’know.
5) Dolores O’Riordan. Her lyrics. Guess whose only contact with “real life” has been MTV news and the occasional venture onto the street outside the Four Seasons? Check “War Child”: “I spent last winter in New York and came upon a man/He was sleeping in the streets and homeless, he said ‘I fought in Vietnam’…” You fucking patronising, prematurely middle-aged cow.
6) Dolores O’Riordan. Her music. The opening song here (“Hollywood”) starts like Stiltskin. Only not as good. Then we’re onto Foreigner territory. With the odd mandolin thrown in, for “local” colour.
7) Dolores O’Riordan. Her lyrics. Check “I’m Still Remembering”: “They say the cream will always rise to the top/They say that good people are always the first to drop/What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?/Remember JFK, ever saintly in a way….” (Yeah, and an adulterous ego-maniac who started the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, in another way.) Check: “Bosnia” (no, seriously, folks) – “Bosnia was so unkind, Sarajevo changed my mind…Rummmpatitum, rummmpatitum/Traboo, traboo, traboo…” (We’re quoting from the official lyric sheet.) The theremin and musical box used (spookily!) to spice up the music have the unfortunate effect of making the song sound like something from “The Twilight Zone”.
The situation in the former Yugoslavia seems to have particularly troubled Dolores while she was writing the songs for this album (what’s wrong, dearie? Nothing better on TV?). After all, as she helpfully points out in the heady, emotive (all right: we’re lying) “Free To Decide”, “You must have nothing more with your time to do/There’s a war in Russia and Sarajevo too.” This is, incidentally, the most perceptive insight she offers throughout. (Who are the people who take this woman seriously? Where do they live? Where do they go to at night? Please don’t invite us.)
8) Dolores O’Riordan. Her voice. The way she turned what was a dazzling, intoxicating gift into an atonal cornkrake skree by infusing it with her personality. Now it emparts no emotion of any kind, save for pettiness, bitterness, self-righteousness. She tries to suggest such broad sweeps of emotion with her songs but, somehow, they always end up sounding so fucking small.
Not that we’d want to belittle her.

Originally printed in the Melody Maker, April 27, 1996

aint that just the way

"What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?" -- comedy gold

Dud: The Cranberries.

GENIUS

It gave me heaves then. Now it makes me hate.

Google images has let me down tonight. Sigh...

http://www.the-cranberries.de/gallery/live/dolores/dollive95.jpg http://graphics.boston.com/sports/patriots/superbowl/galleries/halftime_u2/1.jpg

I also liked "Zombie" for being so silly. It gave me giggles. Not at 8:30 in the morning, though.

ELL OH ELL!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=58594&item=4742806946&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

He/she/it is a treat.

Hasn't held up too well.

I'm at work and the PA is blasting the Cranberries' greatest hits.
I feel a sudden urge to kill.

i remember that section in 'dreams'. you know the bit that goes "LaaaaRR LaR La LaRR LaR La LaaaaaRRRRR". that was sort of moving. or maybe.

I used to really like "Zombie" for a couple of months back then.

lololol I should track down that "Bosnia" song, it seems like it would be a treat

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=bosnia+cranberries&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

lolololol

SARAJEEEEEEEEEEEVO
SARAJEEEEEEEEEEEVO

fucking priceless, no wonder Jewel released "Pieces Of You"

I. JUST. SHOT. DOLORES.

omg the end of this with the music box

why did no one stop her, lololololol

Re: "Dreams" - lol do you remember the video for that song, where they were hosing of a tree-stump looking thing which was caked in mud & it ended up being a mystical, naked dude curled up in the fetal postition & the band were all like "whoah, symbolic.."

The first album is perfectly fine minor-key jangle pop - a nice companion piece to The Sundays' first album. "Linger" is timeless. The second album was OK, but "Zombie" being such a megahit was obviously the beginning of the end b/c it gave DO'R the misguided creative licence to tackle topical, politically-motivated lyrics. And we all know how that turned out.

Overall: a perfectly fine minor band, wrongly eleveated to major-player status, who let it go to their heads & embarassed the hell out of themselves.

OH MY GOD

Ugh @ "perfectly fine" x 2. I've seriously gotta self-edit.

I thought "Linger" was pretty dreamy at age 14.

I'll always associate "Dreams" with a particularly gripping Angela "moment" in "My So-Called Life."

omg bosnia!!!

SARAJEEEEVO! SARAJEEEEVO! SARAJEEEEEEVO! SARAJEEEEEVO!

BOSNIA Lyrics

I would like to state my vision
Life was so unfair
We live in our secure surroundings
And people die out there

Bosnia, was so unkind
Sarejevo, change my mind
And we all call out in despair
All the love we need isn't there
And we all sing songs in our rooms
SARAJEVO erects another tomb

SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO!
Bosnia, was so unkind
SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO!
Bosnia, was so unkind

Sure, things would change
If we really wanted them to
No fear for children anymore
There are babies in their beds
Terror in their heads
for the love of life!

When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?

Rummmpatitum, Rummmpatitum
Traboo, Traboo, Traboo

There are babies in their beds
Terror in their heads
for the love of life!

Why didn't Lionel and Michael include these verses in "We Are The World"??

I've seriously listened to this song about 5 times in a row. You don't get entertainment like this anymore.

was "Free To Decide" supposed to be her "Emperor's New Clothes"??

wtf

People told me I looked like Delores in high school but I think it was just bcz she has short hair and so did I, and people are uncreative but also want to tell people they look like celebrities. I got a big bowling ball head, come on!

I'm now pretty much convinced that The Cranberries were a prank.

They got very good write-ups in the UK music press in 1991 or whenever, just as they were about to break (presumably on the strength of that demo mentioned upthread). I first heard them shortly afterwards, when the BBC had them as headliners in a set of gigs from a church in Glasgow. The prettily mysterious singer from the first press shots was already gone, replaced by some sort of poison gollum, as was the exquisite voice that Melody Maker had promised. She stood and screeched in a pose that looked frankly retarded, bony fingers splayed, back arched, staring madly. So no, I never got as far as liking them. Felt somehow betrayed, actually.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e6/6d/0125228348a00b3c26aec010.L.jpg
Anyway, this sleeve is the glaring omission from this thread. Somehow made better by Amazon listing this as the 'explicit version'

Yestreday it was such a revelation: I didn't remenber they were so terribly lame.

(by the way: Dan, that "video" is PRICELESS).

It is amazing how much less I like "Zombie" now that I know what the real lyrics are.

for the love of life!

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh hey-oooo ah ah-ah

Love that googler way upthread, still.

GET A CLUE ASSHOLES

Still really like "Linger." I like playing this on guitar but can't be bothered to learn the words other than the chorus so just strum that part until I feel it's safe to sing the chorus again.

I think To The Faithful Departed was the first album I bought by a band I liked (I would have been ~13 at the time) that made me decide my love of the band had stopped. I Just Shot John Lennon & Salvation both kind of awesome in their terribleness, though. Uh-huh-huh, Uh-huh-huh, Uh-huh-huh..

I like that one song about her family

yeah I had to 'the faithful departed' too...I think I got it as a present? was younger than that, like 8 or 9? anyway, despite liking their first album, it was pretty obv that departed really had *nothing* going for it

Anyone know where I could find those early EPs?

I still have my copy of the Uncertain e.p. (on Xeric records). Wonder if it's worth anything.

times are tough all over

it is, but for some reason not as much as the original vinyl of their second LP

xpost

They're no Rubberbandits.

Help:

The Irish band recently reunited for their first tour in six years and singer Dolores O'Riordan admits they are desperate to record some fresh material.

She said: 'It would be nice to come up with a new record. I don't see why not. The ideas are always there, so hopefully something will come out of it."

If The Cranberries are going to commit to an LP – which would be their first studio release since 2001’s 'Wake Up and Smell the Coffee’ - Dolores wants it to be as good as it can be.

The 'Linger’ singer – who has been working on new material with guitarist Noel Hogan - added in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper: 'Noel has been sending me lots of music, and I've been continually writing. It's one of those things where we have to see what happens. There's no point in bringing out a crappy record. You want it to be good, so hopefully the creative juices are flowing."

Myspace, was so unkind
Facebook, Twitter, change my mind

i still like Sunday off the first album. there i've said it now.

And the results:

http://www.vevo.com/watch/the-cranberries/tomorrow/GB4111100290

The 'Linger’ singer

Say it out loud...

like a hyperproduced 2011 sundays song

can't process

think the song they released just before breaking up was pretty great, weird monster-era peter buck guitar tones in there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_6ak9CYx48

Linger is a guilty pleasure of mine. Really nice melodies.

gorgeous

https://soundcloud.com/tenderstrength/sets/no-need-4-dreams

I have no idea what that is but it is amazing, reminds me of that Sail A Whale EP that came out on Sincerely Yours a few years ago.

Come on now, admit it - who here likes/has liked the Cranberries?
― DG, Wednesday, October 17, 2001 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

youtube above is enjoyable.

Their first album sounds so intimate and small -- and then by the end they were bombastic!

i am convinced that when i hear "zombie" it is a different song than most people hear, because to me it sounds amazing: heavy riffage with quivering super-irish sounding female vocals, exciting dynamics, i play it on the jukebox at a local bar sometimes.

love "dreams"
like "linger"
lol "zombie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUz9xCTOPRw

I <3 Zombie

I think if you all look deep within yourself, you'll find what's in your heaaaaaaaaad, which is that you actually like the song zombie.

hey!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e56JIp2hXcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6plNu1xLwxE

i like that one too. i've never seen a wild seal.

obviously any fan of "Zombie" is going to be a fan of honking seals

"bada-bing!"*

*phrase the kids i tutored recommended i say after telling a joke so they would be able to tell that i was joking.

A+++++ that faye wong burning car video

<3 nv

it's really only been in the last couple years that i can hear "Dreams" and "Linger" and be like, damn, those are really good songs. 20 years ago, was not having it.

'Zombie' is quite comfortably one of the worst songs on No Need To Argue. I remember seeing the video to it on MTV at some point in 1994... I would have been about 11 years old at the time and I thought "what the fuck have they done!?". I was already familiar with their debut album because a member of my family had bought it because he liked 'Linger' and 'Dreams', and the very last thing I expected from the band at that time was for them to discover distortion pedals and powerchords. I just thought "this is awful, this really doesn't suit this band, or this singer". Of course, this is the direction they ended up taking for that career-killing third album.

is it the vague political self-righteousness people don't like?

the power chords and the breathy irish vocals are good. objectively.

what is the weather like on your planet?

i was 5 when it was released so i think i hear it without any context really and that might affect what it sounds like to me

although, fuck it. i don't have to explain myself. you are all wrong.

"Salvation" is self-righteous and was always my jam. "Zombie" is just hilariously stupid and monotonous.

"Zombie" and "Brain Stew" were a special kind of endless slog that could only be a unit-shifting hit in the mid 90s

salvation is also great

Yeah, I don't get it. I thought "Linger" and "Dreams" were some kind of Irish country music when I first heard them. Thought "these lyrics are dumb". But subsequently found "Zombie", the rest of NNTA, then "Salvation" and "Free To Decide" completely irresistible and loved this band to death until I noticed via a music magazine they weren't a cool band to like.

Had a conversation at 14 with my crush where we both complained at how bad the first album was in comparison to NNTA. Not standing by that assessment, but I never understood the latter day opinion that first album >>>>>>> everything else

I just don't think The Cranberries ever did that kind of sound well, and usually when the distortion and powerchords arrived, then Delores would use it as an excuse to do her seal-barking/bellowing vocal on it, which isn't the prettiest sound in the world. They sounded far more natural and at home with tracks like 'Twenty-One': arpeggiated, lightly chorused guitar, with acoustic guitar backing, Delores singing in a low register and softly (none of the bellowing), and buffed up to perfection by Stephen Street. People can say whatever they like about the quality of the songwriting and the musicianship on those first two Cranberries albums, but the production on Everybody Else and No Need To Argue is top notch.

i'd agree with that re: production

i just don't think they ever had an idea of what kind of band they wanted to be

I wish they'd decided to be the band that made "Salvation" and songs like "Salvation" forever. People who call her voice annoying should really think for a second about their Siouxsie and E Fraser fandom bc some women sing like that and it is awesome

yeah. i like when her singing gets guttural because it is sort of unexpected based on what her voice usually sounds like, and it sounds like she is straining to sing like that which produces a compelling kind of tension. also in zombie, the quivering/cracking thing she does is perfectly executed. that song is anything but a "slog"

xpost:

Yeah, but then Delores sings like that and it doesn't sound awesome. In my opinion, anyway. The sad thing is, after the success of 'Zombie', and then To The Faithful Departed, Delores never quite regained the softer voice she once had on the first album and portions of the second album. Even when they tried to return to their early sound on some of their later albums, Delores' voice was still in jackhammer mode, as if it were poised to belt out 'Hollywood' for all eternity.

And as for Delores herself, her transition from shy/butter-wouldn't-melt circa the first album to the arrogant, preachy and downright nuts woman she was circa the third album was quite something.

she was good in that Father Ted episode tho

heard "dreams" on the local classic rock station last week, which struck me as an odd song to cross over in that direction.

jesus, i can muster up some defenses of delores but she's not even in the vicinity of e. fraser.

sometimes it seems like delores did not have much of a natural ear.

I'm thinking "Garlands" -> "Treasure" E. Fraser and there is not an ocean between them. There is a river and some mix decisions

Beyond that tho yeah there's an ocean and a continent

i like the 2 cranberries songs i have heard and honestly did not realize ppl were so angry about them for ages

Salvation is bellowy dolores at her worst imo, zombie is fine, dreams and linger great, ode to my family i find in my head more than any of em

Terrible live iirc

darragh otm. I think my favorites of theirs melody-wise may be "Empty" and "Free to Decide," the lyrical silliness of the latter notwithstanding.

Every time I think of this band now I get the song "Bosnia" stuck in my head and I can't stop giggling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUz9xCTOPRw

aaahaha fuck, beaten to the punch on that video. oh well. warrants a second viewing, certainly

i miss the random googlers

Think I'll revive this thread instead of some of the other ones. Dolores O'Riordan has suddenly passed.

https://www.rte.ie/amp/933526/?__twitter_impression=true

oh shit! whoa. that's really too bad. I can't say I liked anything after the first two albums but those records were good enough at the time.

wtaf

I loved 'Linger': a special record. And admired the whole first LP: it was always curious how good it was.

Horrible news. The only people who dislike Linger and/or Dreams are soulless hipsters.

this is devastating

she was having some sort of breakdown last year, i hope its not suicide

Dreams and Linger are great songs yes

RIP :(

Zombie is also a great song.

"Linger" is forever

"died suddenly" suggests it could be suicide

loved those first two albums. RIP

46 man, no age.

I'd hold off on the suicide speculation, frankly. I still remember when the God Machine's Jimmy Fernandez died suddenly as a young man during sessions for their second (and last) album, out of nowhere. More information will come as it does.

can't imagine my life without 'linger'.

Whoa

https://youtu.be/Y95VtBO_zZA

This will get a big wave of tributes in the Irish press. They look after - or, are very interested in - their own.

I loved 'Linger': a special record. And admired the whole first LP: it was always curious how good it was.

― the pinefox, Monday, 15 January 2018 17:23 (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed

i really liked them, and her. i only heard the first couple of albums so i can't speak to anything from the third album on but those first couple were pretty fine albums overall.

Wow. I feel like I've been hearing the Cranberries name-dropped recently more than ever, it seemed the critical revival (or just rediscovery by younger listeners?) was happening.

aww man

Was never much of a fan of the Cranberries but Dreams is one of the all-time great songs by anyone

They were obviously making top shelf dream pop (heavy on the pop). I don’t know what happened in the 90s but the critical ambivalence they attracted — or the idea that they were a “guilty pleasure” — made no sense.

I still really like that first record a lot. She seemed troubled in recent years. RIP.

Dreams, Linger, Empty, Twenty-One, Free to Decide, When You're Gone all K-classic to me.

Her singing voice, with that Irish lilt, was absurdly beautiful.

I liked the first two LP's, especially the production. The third one is where I jumped ship.

RIP.

it's a slow work day today so i've put on everybody's doing it in the office

definitely takes me back

what a loss

The first record soundtracked a big period of my youth and I fell in love with D via the songs and the photographs of her in the CD insert. R i p.

The strange thing is I was actually listening to 'When You're Gone' when the news broke. Just the weirdest coincidence.

maybe she will come back as a zombie, zombie, zombie ie ie ie

Literally heard this for the first time on Sunday on a Mark Kermode radio show about songs in films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hHznB-_Gbs

Huge fan and play linger and ode to my family for friends at times. Always will be classic tunes

Needs a mod edit to the title..

That Belfast Telegraph story from 2011 is a wrenching read

Sorry, 2014 https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/dolores-oriordan-the-demons-that-linger-in-her-life-30758766.html

Damn

The strange thing is I was actually listening to 'When You're Gone' when the news broke. Just the weirdest coincidence.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Monday, January 15, 2018 1:50 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

heard this just a few days ago in a public place and was singing along with my friends.

Stinkin

friend, not friends. somehow three or more people singing 'when you're gone' in a public place sounds weird

One of the most distinctive rock voices of her generation imo. I love the first album especially, and also the "Uncertain" EP that came out in '91. This song went on a lot of mixtapes in the early '90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e43LhSk-Mm8

This will get a big wave of tributes in the Irish press. They look after - or, are very interested in - their own.

― the pinefox, Monday, 15 January 2018 17:55 (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a weird thing to write. who isn't? what's your point?

When I lived in Mexico, people were very impressed when I said I was from Limerick, the city where the cranberries came from

The death of Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan is not being treated as suspicious by the Metropolitan Police.

that just means it's not foul play

it's weird how everyone suddenly loves the Cranberries but treated them like a complete joke beforehand

Thought the consensus view was that first LP was excellent, second patchy, third embarrassing, dunno after that, so people have been talking about Linger and Dreams rather than I Just Shot John Lennon, seems fairly standard response imo.

xpost Who loves the Cranberries? Or was that a joke?

xpost Who loves the Cranberries? Or was that a joke?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 10:34 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

surely in reference to the fact that a couple of days ago literally nobody gave 2 shits about the cranberries but yesterday there was a bunch of glowing assessments of their music in obits.

I've always liked linger and dreams tbh

THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT> DOLORES NEVER FAKED HER LIVE PERFORMANCES> SHE PLAYED ALL HER PARTS> I WAS THERE FOR ALL THEIR SHOWS AND IT WAS ALL FOR REAL> MISTER NED RAGGETT I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU GET YOUR STORIES BUT CRACKER CAN SAY WHATEVER THEY WANT BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS SUCK IF EVEN THEY DON'T SPREAD LIES ABOUT A BAND THAT DOESN"T DESERVE TO BE SHIT ON! GET A CLUE ASSHOLES
― chocolate brown, Sunday, November 9, 2003 8:46 PM (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

people say nice things about people after they die. its a thing. most people on earth haven't listened to a cranberries album in years. death is an excuse to remember.

i agree

Whether or not they were worthless she died too young, which is what made her death so notable.

We couldn't sneeze on the board the week Amy Winehouse copped it but an Irish woman dies and it's critical detachment month I see what's happening here

Also a good reason to set aside prejudice and rediscover. I’ve been listening to plenty of linkin park in the last 6 months and kicking myself for not having done so earlier

"why aren't more people being total assholes about this??? i demand justice!!"

We couldn't sneeze on the board the week Amy Winehouse copped it but an Irish woman dies and it's critical detachment month I see what's happening here

― remember the lmao (darraghmac), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 10:53 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree

dmac otm

gave the first album a spin this morning, I still like that record even though it, for some reason, really reminds me of a bad period of my life where I was drinking a horrible lot and inlove with some girl who was really bad for me. I listened to lots of music then but that album for some reason really seems steeped in that; maybe because I didn't listen to it much after 1993.

listened to the first album a few months ago, much more dreamy than I remembered. probably one of the most nostalgic things I could listen to, considering I played it over and over then didn't listen to it for 15 years or so.

exactly. it's really that kind of record. maybe because they became so shit after the second one and people who were kind of on board earlier on abandoned them.

I even saw them live, with Suede (Suede opened, and were better)

that just means it's not foul play

― akm, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 5:06 AM (one hour ago)

can't speak to Mark's unsourced quote, but in Australia, "The police said there were no suspicious circumstances" is newspaper code for suicide.

dreamy sweetness is the quintessence of the Cranberries for me -- i really only paid attention to the first 2 singles bc they were on the radio (was vaguely aware of zombie but was too deeply invested in my own snobbery at that point to care for that tbh) and it was so dreamy and sweet, whereas at the time i felt grizzled and gnarly and way too angry to be able to tolerate the sweetness. i also thought they had a lame band name. it was a bad time in my life that i am not keen to revisit, would prefer it encased in amber where i can continue to not think about it. RIP Dolores, you were cool and shouldn't have died so young.

i liked amanda petrusich's piece but for me it was probably pj harvey, not the cranberries

I suspect every young woman eventually finds a figure (or, more likely, a series of figures) who helps disabuse her of certain stifling notions about femininity, of all the outmoded binaries—the things a woman is supposed to choose between as she comes into her own. It feels almost quaint to point out now, in a cultural moment in which we’re rethinking the whole of gender dynamics, but, in the early nineties, O’Riordan helped further the then-iffy-seeming idea that a woman could be both beautiful and ferocious. She appeared accountable only to some internal voice—which meant we could be, too.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-ferocious-sublime-dolores-oriordan-of-the-cranberries

"why aren't more people being total assholes about this??? i demand justice!!"

― bhad and bhabie (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 2:02 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

more like "people suddenly realize that 'Zombie' is not one of the worst songs of the '90s, would have been cool if they realized that while she was alive"

i also thought they had a lame band name

"more like "people suddenly realize that 'Zombie' is not one of the worst songs of the '90s, would have been cool if they realized that while she was alive"

eh, no, it is still one of the worst songs of the 90's. But Linger and Dreams are pretty good.

what was the original name?!
i always sort of lumped them in with 10,000 maniacs (even though they had been around for longer)

Original name: The Cranberry Saw Us

ugh seriously
that's awful

u_u

i always sort of lumped them in with 10,000 maniacs (even though they had been around for longer)

Seriously? Oh, you mean even though 10,000 Maniacs had been around longer.

I thought of them, initially, as sort of like the Sundays, but not as good or as tasteful. Because by the follow-u[ album I thought of the Cranberries the same way I thought of Live.

Mentioned before, by my fave weird bill was seeing the Cranberries open up for Frank Black opening up for The The in 1993.

Unconfirmed reports of deliberate Fentanyl o.d. coming in.

I gave the first two albums another spin today and still like 'em, and still stand by my opinion that 'Zombie' paved the way for a direction they weren't very good at. They were much better at the delicate numbers, and the production still holds up on the first two albums. What sunk their third record - and subsequently their career - was a combination of silly lyrics, inappropriate production and moving away from what people actually liked about them.

yes. well, clearly some people liked the direction they went in or they wouldn't have continued to put out six or seven albums that go in that direction.

All bands have their hardcore followers, and they're generally the wrong people to look at when assessing the popularity of a band.

Pretty much agree with Turrican. Loved these two records growing up and still do.

o'riordan's voice, specifically in the first album, sounds amazing in how it fades in and out during the bridge or whatever you want to call it

definitely reminiscent of elizabeth fraser at some parts

their lyrics have always been a bit crap, I never knew what any of them were in the first record then when I eventually looked them up I felt "oh." Lots of 'walking out through the door' etc

Nah ode to my family and linger have great lyrics

yes. well, clearly some people liked the direction they went in or they wouldn't have continued to put out six or seven albums that go in that direction.

― akm, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 1:20 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they didn’t though. bury the hatchet was v much a scaling back from to the faithful departed

their singles are generally solid throughout (even “salvation” which i think has a v charming velocity) except “time is ticking out”

there are the cranberry saw us demos on youtube from cassettes they released pretty good stuff

'Salvation' is a very good performance and topline, but I can never get past how awful the lyric is.

Zombie is fine. as with many female musicians/celebrities many had a decent go at her when she had issues a few years back. it's pretty sad overall. idk. Dreams and Linger are better than a lot of the songs that probably inspired them. I always think of Chungking Express when I think of Dreams, even though it's a Faye Wong cover (extremely faithful to the original and therefore sublime.)

'Daffodil Lament' is probably the best song they ever did.

I adore NNTA, really like EEIDISWCW, never heard the rest. I am going to admit right here and now that I played NNTA more often than anything else in my dorm room in 1995

I came up with a dozen goodies.

10. Just My Imagination

that's a good one but i think i prefer "you and me" as a single from that record

Zombie being a huge hit was definitely a problem, the third record even has a terrible remake of it (Hollywood) and the whole thing feels like a mess with that edgier, rockier sound and the political posturing that feels awkward. They were really good at evoking nostalgia in ballad mode, which is why the best cut in there by a long shot is “when you’re gone”.

Alfred you forgot “Wanted”

listening back to the first album today I was struck by how much I used to love Waltzing Back. I don't think I've heard that song since probably 1994. Her Irish yelping really works on that.

Oh, interesting: "Zombie" is what everyone hates? That's the only one of the hits I ever really liked tbh and it still seems iconic of that time to me. Sad that she was so young.

waltzing back is fucking great

I don’t hate Zombie... I hate what it did to them on the following album.

last five or so songs on no need to argue are all wonderful

What really matters mystifies me is how the songwriting quality basically collapses for the entire stretch between “Ode To My Family” and that final remarkable home stretch.

Actually Everyone... seems really notable for its consistency given the band immediately became so inconsistent (though still capable of greatness) thereafter.

Alfred you forgot “Wanted”

I was listening to "Everybody Else Is Doing It" last night for the first time since the 90s. Very strong album, so dreamy and nostalgia-inducing. I really like "pretty" and "put me down"

RIP Dolores.

Dreams is an all-time favourite for me. The first album reminds me of moving to London in '93 and drinking with lots of Irish people.

I think Zombie was where a lot of people got off the bus. I remember they took some stick for releasing an anti-IRA protest song only a couple of weeks after the IRA ceasefire - like they could put the peace process at risk.

I remember they took some stick for releasing an anti-IRA protest song only a couple of weeks after the IRA ceasefire - like they could put the peace process at risk.

LOL

What really matters mystifies me is how the songwriting quality basically collapses for the entire stretch between “Ode To My Family” and that final remarkable home stretch.

Don't be daft - 'I Can't Be With You', 'Twenty One' and 'Empty' are three of the best tracks on there!

The first two LP's are near equal in consistency, and would be equal if 'Zombie' wasn't on there.

Yeah Sunday is a brilliant, giddy thing, i always thought it was called Sunday because it's their most obvious homage to The Sundays.

never pursued their albums but i had MTV for the mid 90s when they broke. i remember "Zombie" and "Linger" on constant rotation and i loved those songs.

last night i looked up the video to "Salvation" and holy crap yes there is the killer evil clown creeping at the window that haunted my dreams when i was a teen! i hadn't seen this video in 20 years, tbh im glad i didn't imagine it! really insane video. btw it's actually a pretty cool song

She looks seriously fucking ill in the video to 'Free to Decide' ...

This is nice, despite the sort of creepy and/or on-the-nose overtones of a lyric about a hotel in London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=229&v=AG1LGI0Gf_Y

Four tracks into the new (and final) Cranberries album and admittedly I'm enjoying it a lot. For me, this is easily a better record than Roses... it might turn out to be their best since No Need to Argue, actually.