{"id":29690,"date":"2025-07-25T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29690"},"modified":"2025-06-30T11:44:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:44:47","slug":"the-cranberries-no-need-to-argue-endures-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/the-cranberries-no-need-to-argue-endures-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cranberries\u2019 \u2018No Need to Argue\u2019 Endures (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Street says that no importance was placed on begin able to replicate the album\u2019s string parts in an eventual live setting. \u201cThat was great for the record,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they wanted to play it live, they might have to work out a different way of playing it.\u201d Lawler concurs. \u201cWhen we were in the studio, it was like, \u2018Let\u2019s make these songs the best we can, and not worry about how we\u2019ll do them live,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Yet the band\u2019s \u201clive\u201d feel in the studio was another important asset. Street notes that most artists today record with a click track to keep tempo rigidly consistent. Not so with The Cranberries. \u201cIf you listen to \u2018Zombie,\u2019\u201d he says, \u201cyou can actually hear the tempo shifting, speeding up, slowing down. And that made it, really; that\u2019s what has the energy in it. It\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The album closes boldly with the serene and meditative title track, drawing down to only O\u2019Riordan\u2019s voice and a church organ. \u201cI told them, \u2018Guys, you\u2019re not going to be on this one,\u2019\u201d Street recalls. \u201cThe boys were fine about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The atmosphere in the studio was ebullient. \u201cThey were all really happy,\u201d Street recalls. \u201cDolores was beginning to date Don [Burton], who became her husband. Everybody was in a really good place.\u201d The band took a well-deserved break midway through the sessions, and at Street\u2019s suggestion they all went skiing. O\u2019Riordan took a fall on the slopes and suffered a severe injury that sidelined her for awhile. \u201cThat didn\u2019t go down very well with the record company,\u201d Street says with a mordant chuckle.<\/p>\n

Street and the band nevertheless finished recording and mixing at London\u2019s Townhouse Studios. \u201cIt all fell into place really well,\u201d he says. \u201cThe chemistry felt really good; we were firing on all cylinders.\u201d Lawler agrees and says that he and his band mates \u201cknew that the album was good; we were proud of what we had done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming album\u2019s leadoff track, \u201cOde to My Family\u201d was released as a single in the UK in November. In an unnerving replay of the previous release cycle, it performed only modestly on the charts. \u201cBut then there was this anomaly,\u201d Street says. \u201c\u2019Zombie\u2019 came out, and it was unlike anything the band had done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZombie\u201d began to connect with listeners on radio and at concerts. \u201cThe rest,\u201d Street says with a smile, \u201cis history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawler notes that The Cranberries did encounter some initial pushback from their label, suggesting that \u201cZombie\u201d was too controversial. \u201cThey thought it was too political, and that it might cause consternation if we released it as a single,\u201d he says. He notes that The Cranberries had been featuring \u201cZombie\u201d in their live show more than a year before it was recorded. \u201cAnd it always got an incredible reaction,\u201d he says. Even though those early audiences didn\u2019t recognize the as-yet-unrecorded song, \u201cby the time the second chorus came around, they were chanting the lyrics.\u201d The band members stood their ground and Island released \u201cZombie\u201d to worldwide success.<\/p>\n

Highlights on the tour in support of No Need to Argue<\/i> were many, but two dates stand out in Lawler\u2019s memory. \u201cI remember Woodstock \u201894 like it was yesterday,\u201d he says. \u201cI walked out onstage thinking, \u2018Jesus! I\u2019ve never seen anything like this in my life!\u2019 It was just a sea of people. We were looking at each other, [realizing] that it was a pinch-me moment. And we gave it our all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The yang to that yin was a free outdoor acoustic show in Washington D.C. \u201cLoads more people turned up than anyone expected,\u201d Lawler says. Crowds began pushing toward the stage, and the overwhelmed security staff made the decision to cancel the show; a riot ensued. \u201cIt was surreal,\u201d Lawler says, noting another downside. \u201cNobody got hurt, but someone stole an acoustic guitar; that was not very nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the original album, the new 30th<\/sup> anniversary edition of No Need to Argue<\/i> features demos, early mixes, alternate tracks and live material (including songs from the Woodstock gig and from a Liverpool concert). A longtime Cranberries fan, Chvrches\u2019 Iain Cook created remarkable remixes of two album tracks, \u201cZombie\u201d and \u201cOde to My Family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal was to bring a fresh and somewhat personal perspective to some very well known songs,\u201d Cook explains. \u201cIt was important to me to take things apart and put them together in a way that sounds surprising and exciting.\u201d He was guided by an important principle: \u201cto be as respectful as possible, especially to Dolores\u2019 vocal, while still pushing things a bit outside of the comfort zone.\u201d Lawler consulted on the mixes, and Cook was delighted with his perspective. \u201cI was sort of looking for some direction from him, some flags of things to avoid, but he graciously said, \u2018Go for it and have fun!\u2019 It was really fun working with Fergal; his encouragement and honesty throughout was refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook reflects on The Cranberries\u2019 legacy. \u201cThe songwriting is on a very different level to almost all of the indie bands around at the time,\u201d he observes. \u201cIt\u2019s never folky per se<\/i>, but there\u2019s a flavor that\u2019s always there. And just as importantly, Dolores\u2019 singing was quite unlike anyone else. There was so much purity and authenticity in every word; she put herself so completely into her performance. That\u2019s a difficult and brave thing to do. I think that\u2019s a huge part of the reason why their music connects so deeply and universally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fergal Lawler believes the breakout success of No Need to Argue<\/i> was the product of \u201ceverything happening at the right time. The record company worked really hard, and we toured hard.\u201d Pausing a beat, he laughs and adds a closing remark. \u201cIf No Need to Argue<\/i> was a shite album,\u201d he says, \u201cnone of that work would have made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Street says that no importance was placed on begin able to replicate the album\u2019s string parts in an eventual live setting. \u201cThat was great for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62,64],"tags":[5730],"class_list":["post-29690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","category-reissue","tag-the-cranberries","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29694,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29690\/revisions\/29694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}