The musical group The Cranberries has become one of the most interesting Irish musical teams that have received worldwide fame.
Unusual performance, mixing of several rock genres and chic vocal abilities of the soloist became the key features of the band, creating an enchanting role for it, for which their fans adore them.
Krenberis start
The Cranberries (translated as “cranberry”) is a very extraordinary rock band created back in 1989 in the Irish town of Limerick by siblings Noel (bass guitar) and Mike (guitar) Hogan, along with Fergal Lawler (drums) and Niall Quinn ( vocals).
Initially, the group was called The Cranberry Saw Us, which translates as “cranberry sauce”, and the above members became its first composition.
Noel Hogan (bass guitar)
Already in March 1990, Quinn left the band, deciding to start his project The Hitchers.
The guys managed to record a mini-album “Anything” with him, and finally Quinn gave the guys an audition for the fragile 19-year-old Dolores O'Riordan (vocals and keyboards), who later became the only and invariable vocalist of The Cranberries. From that moment and for 28 years, the composition of the team was unchanged.
Mike Hogan (guitar)
Krenberis skillfully mixes different rock genres: here are Celtic, and alternative, and soft, as well as jungle-pop, dream-pop pop formations.
Such a cocktail, multiplied by the chic voice of O'Riordan, singled out the team, allowing it to be out of competition, however, the creative path was very thorny.
Dolores O'Riordan
Already in 1991, the band gave more than a hundred copies of a demo of three compositions to music kiosks. This recording was in great demand, and the team sent the next batch to recording studios. From that moment on, the name of the team began to be called The Cranberries.
The songs were highly acclaimed by the music industry as well as by the British press. Everyone wanted to sign a contract with a promising musical group.
Fergal Laurel
The team chose the recording studio Island Records, but under this name, their first song “Uncertain” soon did not become popular. And now the team, which was predicted to be famous and successful, at one moment became uninteresting, capable only of remixes of other groups.
Niall Quinn
In 1992, a new producer, Stephen Street, who had previously collaborated with Morrisey, Blur, The Smiths, began to work with the team, and in a very depressing environment they began to record their first album.
Already in March 1993, the team released the first disc “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?” ("The rest of us do it, can't we?"), which Dolores named. She sincerely believed that all megastars made themselves, which means that it was really possible for her team to become popular here and now.
The album sold 70 thousand copies daily, and this directly confirmed the challenge of the band: "Can't we?". Already by Christmas The Cranberries performed with a large-scale tour, their performances were eagerly awaited by thousands who wanted to hear and see them, not only in Europe, but also in the USA. The team returned to Ireland famous. Dolores admitted that she left completely unknown, and came home as a star. The songs “Dreams” and “Linger” became hits.
The new studio disc “No Need To Argue”, which became the most successful in the discography of the musical group, appeared in 1994 under the direction of Stephen Street. Written by Dolores together with Noel Hogan, the song “Ode to My Family” tells about sadness over a carefree childhood, ordinary joyful moments, about the happiness of being young. This composition fell in love with listeners in Europe.
Krenberis Zombie
And yet, the key hit of both this album and the entire creative path of the band was the composition “Zombie”: it was an emotional protest, a response to the death of two boys in 1993 from an IRA (Irish Republican Army) bomb that exploded in the town of Warrington.
The video for the song “Zombie” was shot by the famous Samuel Beyer, who already had an impressive track record of video works for such hits as: Nirvana “Smells like teen spirit”, Ozzy Osbourne “Mama, I'm coming home”, Sheryl Crow “Home” , Green Day “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. Even today, the song "Zombie" still attracts the listener and is often remixed.
The Cranberries experimented a lot with sound. In the 90s, the group released 2 more albums containing quite provocative songs, including the song “Animal instinct”. Already in 2001, The Cranberries released their fifth studio album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, produced by Stephen Street.
It turned out to be quite soft and calm, Dolores just gave birth to her first child, but did not receive serious commercial success.
Stagnation in creativity
In 2002, the group gave several concerts as part of a world tour. And there came a long break in the work of the group, however, without loud statements about the breakup of the group.
After 7 years, already on the eve of 2010, Dolores announced the reunion of the team. Prior to this, the participants performed solo, but O'Riordan turned out to be the most successful, releasing 2 albums during this time. Having reunited in 2010, The Cranberries went on tour in full force, and in 2011 they recorded a new disc “Roses”. And again subsided for almost 7 years.
In April 2017, the new seventh disc “Something Else” was released, and fans expected more activity from the band, but already in January 2018 it became known that the vocalist and mother of 3 children, Dolores O'Riordan, suddenly died in a London hotel room. The cause of the vocalist's death was not announced for a long time, but six months later, doctors confirmed that the singer had drowned while intoxicated.
In 2018, the disc “EverybodyElseIsDoingIt, So WhyCan'tWe?”, released in 1993, turned 25 years old, in connection with which it was planned to release its remastering. But due to death, this idea was shelved and now the disc is available on vinyl and in deluxe format on 4CD.
In 2019, the release of a new, but, alas, the last disc of The Cranberries with vocal parts recorded by Dolores is planned. Noel Hogan said that the group does not intend to continue to work further. “We'll release a CD and that's it. There will be no continuation, we do not need it.”
Released discs by The Cranberries:
- 1993 - “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?”
- 1994 - “No Need to Argue”
- 1996 - “To the Faithful Departed”
- 1999 - “Bury the Hatchet”
- 2001 - “Wаke Up and Smell the Coffee”
- 2012 - “Roses”
- 2017 – “Something Else”
