The Lingering Legacy of Dolores O’Riordan and the Cranberries (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from Part One…

Finding the Magic
Street concedes that effective production sometimes means making edits to bring the pieces together effectively. But when crafting No Need to Argue, The Cranberries needed remarkably little of that approach. “I like to work with what I’ve got,” Street says. “Because that’s the band. That’s the magic, you know.”

Lawler agrees, and says that the group was sharply focused on the task at hand. “It was always, ‘Let’s record these and make them the best we can in the studio,’” he says. A skiing accident during a holiday break from the sessions landed O’Riordan in the hospital, but even then she remained focused on the album in progress. “My wife and I went to visit her in hospital in London,” Lawler recalls. “And she said, ‘I have an idea for a new song.’” Strumming an acoustic guitar, O’Riordan played what would become the album’s title track.

Once No Need to Argue was released, the track that truly took off was “Zombie.” O’Riordan’s lyrics about a tragic killing resonated with listeners around the world. And the lyricist acknowledged that in her 2018 conversation with Pat Prince. “I think they lyrics are strong,” she said. “They’re very short and very direct.” When Prince suggested that O’Riordan’s lyrics for “Zombie” displayed maturity beyond her years, she laughed off the compliment. “I suppose I was an old solider,” she said.

Stephen Street agrees about the maturity of “Zombie,” suggesting that while the band that made Everybody Else was very good, they weren’t capable of creating a song like “Zombie” until the second album. The change had come quickly.

Despite their wide, mainstream appeal – “Zombie” made it to the Top 20 in nine countries, reaching the No. 1 spot in four of those – The Cranberries were tagged with the “alternative rock” label. For her part, O’Riordan had few qualms about the designation. “I didn’t mind it, actually,” she told Prince. “[We weren’t] like all the other work; [we were] a little different.’”

After the Peak
In the years after No Need to Argue, The Cranberries continued to make music of great quality. 1996’s To the Faithful Departed spawned four singles, charted well and earned critical praise. But it wasn’t the blockbuster seller that No Need to Argue had been.
Subsequent releases sold in fewer and fewer numbers, suggesting that the band’s commercial apex had come and gone. By 2003 the group went on hiatus; initially announcing a two-year break, the band would remain inactive until 2009. During the hiatus, O’Riordan toured as a solo artist and released two albums under her own name.

After the band reconvened, they would make two more studio albums, 2012’s Roses and Something Else from 2017. In and out of The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan’s songwriting continued to develop and evolve, reflecting her concerns. But in some ways, the songs moved away from heavier themes. She seemed to acknowledge as much in her 2018 Goldmine interview. “As you get older, you have kids and things change,” she said. “You’re not so dramatic about relationships; you take things in your stride a bit more.” With a resigned chuckle, she added, “Maybe you just get to that point where you’re like, ‘Okay, here we go again.’”

Life and Death
In that interview, O’Riordan did hint at her struggles with depression. “As you get older, you’re toying with your sanity,” she said. “Your parents die. You’re dealing with bereavement. Coming to terms with getting older, you kind of wonder, ‘What’s life all about?’ You’re born, you live, you get old, you die. [And I] get a bit skeptical about it all.”

Presciently, Pat Prince’s interview with Dolores also explored themes of loss. Reflecting on the deaths of Prince and David Bowie (both 2016) and Michael Jackson (2009), O’Riordan said, “Prince and Michael Jackson, they were young. I didn’t expect that. Or Bowie; he was still young as well. He was only in his sixties, and he looked so healthy.” Pausing, she added, “It just shows that you never know how long you’re around for.”

A few short months after that conversation, O’Riordan was gone as well. The official coroner’s verdict was accidental drowning in a bathtub as the result of alcohol intoxication. At the time of her death she had been working on new songs and was publicly expressing optimism for the future. With her passing, the world lost an articulate lyricist.

Warm Memories of Dolores
Looking back, producer Stephen Street says that with due respect to the huge appeal and success of The Cranberries’ impassioned, hard-edged “Zombie,” he prefers songs that display what he calls O’Riordan’s more intimate side. “On songs such as ‘Twenty One’ and ‘Everything I Said’ [both from No Need to Argue], she opened up her soul and showed the feelings that she held inside as a young woman.”

Today, seven years after O’Riordan’s death, Street says that he still can’t believe she’s gone. “It seemed so unfair, a young woman with a family, and her band still successfully recording and touring the world,” he says. “She had so much more to give; she left us far too soon.” But he emphasizes that through The Cranberries’ body of work, O’Riordan’s music lives on. “And that gives me comfort, knowing that her songs are still being played and listened to all over the world,” Street says. “So, I guess that in a way, she’s never really left us.”

“There are no words to describe how much I still feel her loss,” says O’Riordan’s Cranberries band mate, drummer Fergal Lawler. “It’s too difficult to describe. I try to focus on the many positive memories I have of Dolores rather than thinking of how much I miss her presence.” His wish is that Dolores O’Riordan be remembered as “the unique soul she was. A strong woman who was not afraid to speak her mind and stand up for what she believed in. And someone who wrote honestly and emotionally from her heart.”