Worst/most cringeworthy lyric on The Cranberries' 'To The Faithful Departed'

Martin is guilty of a lot of obvious and meaningless rhymes but they're not as tortured as o'riordan's

Chris Martin's lyrics are just banal for the most part, right? has he ever produced anything as indelibly atrocious as "he had perceptively known that it wouldn't be nice, because in 1980 he paid the price"?

Nah, he's more "sky/fly/high."

Like, here's a quick googled Martin classic:

Every step that you take
Could be your biggest mistake
It could bend or it could break
But that's the risk that you take

You cut me down a tree
And brought it back to me
And that's what made me see
Where I was going wrong
You put me on a shelf
And kept me for yourself
I can only blame myself
You can only blame me

And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
Or swallowed in the sea

You put me on a line
And hung me out to dry
And darling that's when I
Decided to go to see you
You cut me down to size
And opened up my eyes
Made me realize
What I could not see

You cut me down a tree
And brought it back to me
And that's what made me see

what the hell is this

Martin is guilty of a lot of obvious and meaningless rhymes but they're not as tortured as o'riordan's

Yeah.

There was a kid in my literature class when I was 15 who used to amend his essays by running a lot of the words he used through Microsoft Word's thesaurus and subbing in the longest alternative that came up. The result was, of course, unreadable. Our teacher rather cruelly made a public joke of him by forcing him to read a paragraph or two aloud to the rest of the class.

I felt sorry for him at the time, but that kid had the last laugh, as he grew up to be the singer and frontwoman of internationally successful rock band The Cranberries.

lol

"You don't get it, do you? My wife is Bono. She is not Larry." aka Dolores from The Cranberries and her pisshead husband vs their beleaguered nanny

I remember really liking "Linger" and the first album by this band band when I was 14. Then the second one came out, and for some reason they'd turned from airy and twee to all heavy-handed and angsty, which made cringe. Based on the comments on this album, I guess I was lucky that I stopped following their career then?

This album makes No Need To Argue look like a masterpiece.

Sure, things would change/if we really wanted them to

this is the worst in a way. like for the sheer banality and lack of effort.

He had perceptively known that it wouldn't be nice, because in 1980 he paid the price

this is easily a candidate for one of the most hilariously bad lyrics of all time, on a technical level.

"I Just Shot John Lennon!"/What a sad and sorry and sickening sight/What a sad and sorry and sickening night

this sounds amusingly like a tabloid newspaper headline. or a youtube comment by a senile nun.

after this record their singles would still occasionally be great ("you and me" from bury the hatchet, "analyze" from wake up, oh and especially "stars" from their greatest hits) but the albums are all really shaky. wake up in particular has a song (which was a single!) that is imo worse than anything on this album, "time is ticking out"

Brad how do you even do this.

they're one of my dad's favorite bands

and it's my fault, i bought no need to argue when i was a kid, got bored with it, and he picked it up

I remember really liking "Linger" and the first album by this band band when I was 14. Then the second one came out, and for some reason they'd turned from airy and twee to all heavy-handed and angsty, which made cringe. Based on the comments on this album, I guess I was lucky that I stopped following their career then?

― Tuomas, Wednesday, August 31, 2016 10:25 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Zombie' is pretty much the only song on the second album that is in that mould, but To The Faithful Departed is basically an attempt to go further down that route.

No one has discussed this one yet:

What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?/Remember JFK, ever saintly in a way

Which doesn't have quite the clunkiness of the Lennon one, but crams in TWO icons, pat rhyming and empty philosophising in one amazingly bad couplet.

I'm more offended that she considers JFK "saintly." I'm surprised she didn't smuggle Oliver Stone lines into couplets like

"DO NOT FORGET YOUR DYING KING/I thought on the jet plane to Peking"

What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?/and of course Van Gogh, as you will recall he was insane

Jeff Buckley unfortunately drowned in an incident which occurred in a river/ Nelson Mandela, few would disagree he was an important political figure

The Cranwikkies

That is still better than "JFK, blown away/ what else do I have to say" xxxp

Van Gogh we still hold dear, although he slice-d off his ear, Picasso was an artist too, trabooooo trabooooo....

Tears of LOL at Buckley/Mandela.

Pablo Picasso seemed as though he suffered with his mental health (citation needed)/ though the exact religious reasons are a subject of debate for historians, the Egyptian lord or prince or whatever Tutankhamun was buried with his wealth

xpost yeah probably

> Tears of LOL at Buckley/Mandela.

here too

Brought up on the occasional weird bill thread, but in 1993 I saw the Cranberries open for Frank Black opening for The The. Easy to forget, but at the beginning people tossed the Cranberries in with bands like the Sundays as sort of Smiths-y, but of course only one of those bands went on to repeatedly embarrass themselves.

Crantastic fact: 'I Shot John Lennon' was originally going to be titled 'I Shot J.R.'

Smiths/Sundays/Cranberries an interesting trifecta, as I loved and championed all three album debuts, and then pretty much lost interest in following releases. xp

it's impressive to think that my own internal rewrite of "Linger" as "Do you fancy a fish finger?" still wouldn't make top 10 here

Can I vote for all of this pls -

It was the 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.

John Lennon died. [X6]

With a Smith & Wesson 38,
John Lennon's life was no longer a debate.
He should have stayed at home,
He should have never cared,
And the man who took his life declared,

He said I just shot John Lennon.
He said I just shot John Lennon.
What a sad and sorry and sickening sight.
What a sad and sorry and sickening night.
What a sad and sorry and sickening sight.
What a sad and sorry and sickening night.

Ah, ah ah ah, ah...

I think that one stings more than the others because it really, really conveys all the sins and shames of teenage poetry. I wrote a LOT of stuff with basically that rhythm and the same kind of forced rhymes and awkward constructions.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

no longer a debate

good thread

You cut me down a tree
And brought it back to me
And that's what made me see

what the hell is this

That doesn't rhyme with tree/me/see! (Also discussed on this fine thread: Lyrical Cliches You Can't Stand )

"Inject your soul with liberty, it's free" sadly underrated, but no surprise given such an embarrassment of riches

...they're BACK!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/something-else/id1211820803?app=itunes

But, sadly, no rework of "Sarajevo" or "I Just Shot John Lennon" on this.

And the PR is happy to tell you re the album cover:

Shot by Andy Earl, the photographer for The Cranberries' Everybody Else Is Doing It cover

I hope it was the same couch.

...as Gear's.

Fun fact: the next album that Bruce Fairbairn produced after this was Elegantly Wasted by INXS. Both Hutchence and Fairbarn would be dead within a couple of years, the latter being found dead by Jon Anderson while working on a Yes project.

And his last full production was for some shitty swing revival band, I guess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torch_This_Place

Curious definition of fun there (xp)

x-post:

...and of course Fairbairn produced New Jersey, for those that didn't know.

At the time he passed away he apparently was going to team up with Bob Rock for another Bon Jovi production. I'm assuming this would have been the LP that became Crush?