{"id":30134,"date":"2025-12-12T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30134"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:35:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T19:35:46","slug":"the-lingering-legacy-of-dolores-oriordan-and-the-cranberries-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/12\/the-lingering-legacy-of-dolores-oriordan-and-the-cranberries-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lingering Legacy of Dolores O\u2019Riordan and the Cranberries (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"Finding the Magic<\/b>
\nStreet concedes that effective production sometimes means making edits to bring the pieces together effectively. But when crafting No Need to Argue<\/i>, The Cranberries needed remarkably little of that approach. \u201cI like to work with what I\u2019ve got,\u201d Street says. \u201cBecause that\u2019s the band. That’s the magic, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawler agrees, and says that the group was sharply focused on the task at hand. \u201cIt was always, \u2018Let\u2019s record these and make them the best we can in the studio,\u2019\u201d he says. A skiing accident during a holiday break from the sessions landed O\u2019Riordan in the hospital, but even then she remained focused on the album in progress. \u201cMy wife and I went to visit her in hospital in London,\u201d Lawler recalls. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018I have an idea for a new song.\u2019\u201d Strumming an acoustic guitar, O\u2019Riordan played what would become the album\u2019s title track.<\/p>\n

Once No Need to Argue<\/i> was released, the track that truly took off was \u201cZombie.\u201d O\u2019Riordan\u2019s lyrics about a tragic killing resonated with listeners around the world. And the lyricist acknowledged that in her 2018 conversation with Pat Prince. \u201cI think they lyrics are strong,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re very short and very direct.\u201d When Prince suggested that O\u2019Riordan\u2019s lyrics for \u201cZombie\u201d displayed maturity beyond her years, she laughed off the compliment. \u201cI suppose I was an old solider,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Stephen Street agrees about the maturity of \u201cZombie,\u201d suggesting that while the band that made Everybody Else<\/i> was very good, they weren\u2019t capable of creating a song like \u201cZombie\u201d until the second album. The change had come quickly.<\/p>\n

Despite their wide, mainstream appeal \u2013 \u201cZombie\u201d made it to the Top 20 in nine countries, reaching the No. 1 spot in four of those \u2013 The Cranberries were tagged with the \u201calternative rock\u201d label. For her part, O\u2019Riordan had few qualms about the designation. \u201cI didn\u2019t mind it, actually,\u201d she told Prince. \u201c[We weren\u2019t] like all the other work; [we were] a little different.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Peak<\/b>
\nIn the years after No Need to Argue<\/i>, The Cranberries continued to make music of great quality. 1996\u2019s To the Faithful Departed<\/i> spawned four singles, charted well and earned critical praise. But it wasn\u2019t the blockbuster seller that No Need to Argue<\/i> had been.
\nSubsequent releases sold in fewer and fewer numbers, suggesting that the band\u2019s 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\u2019Riordan toured as a solo artist and released two albums under her own name.<\/p>\n

After the band reconvened, they would make two more studio albums, 2012\u2019s Roses<\/i> and Something Else<\/i> from 2017. In and out of The Cranberries, Dolores O\u2019Riordan\u2019s 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<\/i> interview. \u201cAs you get older, you have kids and things change,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not so dramatic about relationships; you take things in your stride a bit more.\u201d With a resigned chuckle, she added, \u201cMaybe you just get to that point where you\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, here we go again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Life and Death<\/b>
\nIn that interview, O\u2019Riordan did hint at her struggles with depression. \u201cAs you get older, you’re toying with your sanity,\u201d she said. \u201cYour parents die. You’re dealing with bereavement. Coming to terms with getting older, you kind of wonder, \u2018What\u2019s life all about?\u2019 You\u2019re born, you live, you get old, you die. [And I] get a bit skeptical about it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presciently, Pat Prince\u2019s interview with Dolores also explored themes of loss. Reflecting on the deaths of Prince and David Bowie (both 2016) and Michael Jackson (2009), O\u2019Riordan said, \u201cPrince 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.\u201d Pausing, she added, \u201cIt just shows that you never know how long you\u2019re around for.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few short months after that conversation, O\u2019Riordan was gone as well. The official coroner\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Warm Memories of Dolores<\/b>
\nLooking back, producer Stephen Street says that with due respect to the huge appeal and success of The Cranberries\u2019 impassioned, hard-edged \u201cZombie,\u201d he prefers songs that display what he calls O\u2019Riordan\u2019s more intimate side. \u201cOn songs such as \u2018Twenty One\u2019 and \u2018Everything I Said\u2019 [both from No Need to Argue<\/i>], she opened up her soul and showed the feelings that she held inside as a young woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, seven years after O\u2019Riordan\u2019s death, Street says that he still can\u2019t believe she\u2019s gone. \u201cIt seemed so unfair, a young woman with a family, and her band still successfully recording and touring the world,\u201d he says. \u201cShe had so much more to give; she left us far too soon.\u201d But he emphasizes that through The Cranberries\u2019 body of work, O\u2019Riordan\u2019s music lives on. \u201cAnd that gives me comfort, knowing that her songs are still being played and listened to all over the world,\u201d Street says. \u201cSo, I guess that in a way, she\u2019s never really left us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no words to describe how much I still feel her loss,\u201d says O\u2019Riordan\u2019s Cranberries band mate, drummer Fergal Lawler. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d His wish is that Dolores O\u2019Riordan be remembered as \u201cthe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One\u2026 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,51,62],"tags":[3860,5730],"class_list":["post-30134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-cranberries","tag-the-cranberries","cat-41-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134","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=30134"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30143,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions\/30143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}