"Zombie" is very, very funny.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― David Raposa, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Brian MacDonald, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Johnathan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
And yes, Brian, do tell. It's such a fun story.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Revenge of the Fatnick Regent, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― dave q, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
[|24|\||33|2|2!3$ $|_|[|<, |_| |4/\/\3|25?
Or is subject-object disagreement a new facet of haxOr-speak?
― Non-Prolix Nitsuh, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― FatusNickus, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
at the end of my last post.
― Nitsuh, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
http://gygax.pitas.com
― gygax, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― JM, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― patrick, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― keith, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Rob M, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Omar, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― the pinefox, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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??
― Dr. C, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― Nicole, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
"Linger" can suck deze nutz, tho.
― Dan Perry, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― stevo, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Helen Fordsdale, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
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.
― Jerry, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Luke, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Monday, 22 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― chocolate brown, Sunday, 9 November 2003 20:46 (twenty years ago) link
― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 9 November 2003 20:52 (twenty years ago) link
― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 9 November 2003 20:54 (twenty years ago) link
...at this point I refuse to even think about their more recent records.
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Cat, Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link
Truly, I have caused sorrow here.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Annouschka (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:47 (twenty years ago) link
― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:50 (twenty years ago) link
"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???
― Neil FC (Neil FC), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link
― gallantseagull, Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:15 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:18 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 10 November 2003 00:32 (twenty years ago) link
So there.
― ed dill (eddill), Monday, 10 November 2003 03:01 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 10 November 2003 03:15 (twenty years ago) link
A REAL TURKEY
Some people like THE CRANBERRIES. EVERETT TRUE and TAYLOR PARKES don’t.
THE CRANBERRIESTO 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
― Neil FC (Neil FC), Monday, 10 November 2003 14:15 (twenty years ago) link
Original name: The Cranberry Saw Us
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 19:47 (six years ago) link
ugh seriouslythat's awful
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 19:49 (six years ago) link
u_u
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 19:49 (six years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 19:52 (six years ago) link
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.
― Three Word Username, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:00 (six years ago) link
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.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:18 (six years ago) link
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, 16 January 2018 20:20 (six years ago) link
All bands have their hardcore followers, and they're generally the wrong people to look at when assessing the popularity of a band.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:23 (six years ago) link
Pretty much agree with Turrican. Loved these two records growing up and still do.
― kolakube (Ross), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:23 (six years ago) link
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
― infinity (∞), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:28 (six years ago) link
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
― kinder, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:43 (six years ago) link
Nah ode to my family and linger have great lyrics
― kolakube (Ross), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:44 (six years ago) link
― 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”
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 20:51 (six years ago) link
there are the cranberry saw us demos on youtube from cassettes they released pretty good stuff
― bhad and bhabie (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 21:01 (six years ago) link
'Salvation' is a very good performance and topline, but I can never get past how awful the lyric is.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 21:11 (six years ago) link
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.)
― omar little, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 21:12 (six years ago) link
'Daffodil Lament' is probably the best song they ever did.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 21:18 (six years ago) link
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
― trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 23:01 (six years ago) link
I came up with a dozen goodies.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 03:41 (six years ago) link
10. Just My Imagination
that's a good one but i think i prefer "you and me" as a single from that record
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 03:45 (six years ago) link
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”.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 04:10 (six years ago) link
Alfred you forgot “Wanted”
― treeship 2, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 04:18 (six years ago) link
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.
― akm, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 04:25 (six years ago) link
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.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 04:37 (six years ago) link
waltzing back is fucking great
― kolakube (Ross), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 05:07 (six years ago) link
I don’t hate Zombie... I hate what it did to them on the following album.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 06:26 (six years ago) link
last five or so songs on no need to argue are all wonderful
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 06:27 (six years ago) link
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.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 10:28 (six years ago) link
― dorsalstop, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 10:51 (six years ago) link
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"
― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 10:54 (six years ago) link
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.
― Chunky Backgammon (onimo), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:06 (six years ago) link
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
― Whiney Houston (Tom D.), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:10 (six years ago) link
Don't be daft - 'I Can't Be With You', 'Twenty One' and 'Empty' are three of the best tracks on there!
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:40 (six years ago) link
The first two LP's are near equal in consistency, and would be equal if 'Zombie' wasn't on there.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:42 (six years ago) link
Yeah Sunday is a brilliant, giddy thing, i always thought it was called Sunday because it's their most obvious homage to The Sundays.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 12:03 (six years ago) link
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
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 13:30 (six years ago) link
She looks seriously fucking ill in the video to 'Free to Decide' ...
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 15:17 (six years ago) link
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
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 7 February 2019 20:02 (five years ago) link
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.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Friday, 3 May 2019 17:38 (five years ago) link