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

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ned you got some splainin to do!

Truly, I have caused sorrow here.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:39 (twenty years ago) link

GET ONE CLUE

Annouschka (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link

GOOGLE'S CLUES

Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

Their first e.p. weren't bad (with "Uncertain" on it)...as Sundays rip-offs go. Crap after that, though.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:47 (twenty years ago) link

Adore "Linger", don't much care for the rest.

William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:50 (twenty years ago) link

a friend of mine had a tape of "Linger" in her car, and one day insisted on playing it again and again and again while giving me and another mate a lift to the pictures. my mate absolutely hated them, and her voice in particular. when the journey was over and we stepped out of the car, my buddy looked like he'd just undergone 24 hours of electro-shock treatment.

"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

yeah post it.

gallantseagull, Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:15 (twenty years ago) link

I found "Zombie" decent, although I would never say I loved it. And even then, Dolores O'Riordan's voice made me sick.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 9 November 2003 23:18 (twenty years ago) link

Are you kidding, Geir? "Zombie" was embarassing in a manner that made me embarassed to be a member of the species.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 10 November 2003 00:32 (twenty years ago) link

Not only did I/do I like them.....I actually think Zombie is a very good song!

So there.

ed dill (eddill), Monday, 10 November 2003 03:01 (twenty years ago) link

"Zombie" sounded quote nice back then. I am not saying I like it now.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 10 November 2003 03:15 (twenty years ago) link

as promised...

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

Neil FC (Neil FC), Monday, 10 November 2003 14:15 (twenty years ago) link

John Lennon – a bigoted, misogynistic, self-loathing, tantrum-prone asshole who also happened to write some great songs

aint that just the way

stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 November 2003 14:18 (twenty years ago) link

Funny to read Jerry's comments from 2001 and then read that True/Parkes review. Jerry got me into The Cranberries in the first place, back when the (definitely searchworthy) Uncertain EP first came out - 1992? The title track and "Pathetic Senses" are both aces. I duly bought Everyone Else Is doing It...etc and kinda loved it in, yes, a Sundaysish fashion I suppose. Still think it's pretty fine, though not actually listened to it in years. "Zombie" killed all the feeling I'd ever had for them - lest we forget, apart from that voice (which admittely hit parodic levels of Oirishness earely on), Dolores was very cute back when she had that raven bob - and I hid my album for a bit.

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 10 November 2003 14:52 (twenty years ago) link

Some random memory particle has just reminded me that Radio 1 broadcast a live gig in either 94 or 95, in which The Cranberries shared a bill with Radiohead. Did that really happen, or have two unrelated concerts just merged together in my head?

Philip Alderman (Phil A), Monday, 10 November 2003 21:45 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks to Neil FC...I had loved this review when it was first published and reading it again just reinforces how horrid they became and how hilarious the lyrics were.

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

Nicolars The Insult Comic Librarian (Nicole), Monday, 10 November 2003 21:59 (twenty years ago) link

Classic: Usage of the Chinese sung version of "Dreams" in Chungking Express.

Dud: The Cranberries.

Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:02 (twenty years ago) link

“Bosnia was so unkind, Sarajevo changed my mind…Rummmpatitum, rummmpatitum/Traboo, traboo, traboo…”

GENIUS

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:07 (twenty years ago) link

what's in Dan Perry's clipboard?

cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:10 (twenty years ago) link

they were my first concert, so i have an inability to reevaluate their first 2 albums. classic, until the thrid album. and even if i could reevaluate, i still think i'd adore "dreams"

Felcher (Felcher), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:12 (twenty years ago) link

"Linger" must have been among the first singles I ever bought. They're still rub, though.

cis (cis), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:28 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...
I was awakened at 8:30am on Sunday of this past holiday weekend to the sound "Zombie." Coming from my neighbor's stereo. Not too loud, but loud enough. Okay, anyone can live through that. But on REPEAT? For the next TWO AND A HALF HOURS??

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

rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 7 July 2005 04:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Those American flag jumpsuits. x "You don't get it, do you? My wife is Bono. She is not Larry." = ?

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

rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:00 (eighteen years ago) link

"Linger" is real pretty though. And it always makes me want to hear "Here's Where The Story Ends."

rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:01 (eighteen years ago) link

The first Cranberries record is pretty nice. I liked it then and I would probably still like it right now if I put it on, which I haven't since god knows. If they'd called it quits after that, I think it would be remembered more fondly.

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

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:21 (eighteen years ago) link

i like the faye wong cover

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, and as said upthread, the Uncertain EP is good too.

gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 05:22 (eighteen years ago) link

holy shit, that googler upthread!

ELL OH ELL!

donut e- (donut), Thursday, 7 July 2005 06:32 (eighteen years ago) link

One for the ridiculously over proced eBay CDs thread, i think! (It is eil.com selling, though)

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

Michael Lambert (Michael Lambert), Thursday, 7 July 2005 08:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Shit, I used to have a copy on vinyl.

Omar (Omar), Thursday, 7 July 2005 09:40 (eighteen years ago) link

I hated Delores O'Riordan's voice at the time, but their music has held up better than one would expect.

Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link

holy shit, that googler upthread!

He/she/it is a treat.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Finding out that she was yelping "zombie" instead of "sorry" has had the completely counter-intuitive effect of making me like "Zombie" less.

The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link

"Salvation" was one of my favorite songs when I was 10.

Hasn't held up too well.

The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

I had a crush on her at 13, and I thought "Zombie" and "Dreams" were amazing. At the time.

PB, Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember noticing that "Dreams" had exactly the same chord progression/tone/tempo as Luna's "Slash Yer Tires."

Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:56 (eighteen years ago) link

They worked wonders on my UTI.

k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 7 July 2005 14:59 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

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

Marco Damiani, Thursday, 8 January 2009 15:11 (fifteen years ago) link

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.

Charlie Howard, Thursday, 8 January 2009 16:41 (fifteen years ago) link

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

Geir Hongro, Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:38 (fifteen years ago) link

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

^likes black girls (HI DERE), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:43 (fifteen years ago) link

SARAJEEEEEEEEEEEVO
SARAJEEEEEEEEEEEVO

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

^likes black girls (HI DERE), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:46 (fifteen years ago) link

I. JUST. SHOT. DOLORES.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:48 (fifteen years ago) link

omg the end of this with the music box

why did no one stop her, lololololol

^likes black girls (HI DERE), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:49 (fifteen years ago) link

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.

Pain don't hurt. (Pillbox), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:54 (fifteen years ago) link

OH MY GOD

^likes black girls (HI DERE), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:54 (fifteen years ago) link

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

Pain don't hurt. (Pillbox), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:55 (fifteen years ago) link

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

Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Thursday, 8 January 2009 21:57 (fifteen 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

two months pass...

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 (four years ago) link


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