The story of this album’s genesis is both a sad and beautiful one. Sad because it is the band’s 8th and final album (in their initial line-up at least), but beautiful because we get the pleasure of hearing the voice of Dolores O'Riordan once more, who died suddenly on 15th January 2018. It’s thanks to demos recorded a few weeks before her passing that this musical resurrection has been possible: Noel Hogan, The Cranberries’ guitarist, had started working on the tracks in May 2017 while on tour, before recording eleven demos with the singer a few months later. It’s with the support of the O’Riordan family that the bandmembers formed back together once more to complete the songs.
Strangely, the titles and lyrics are often about loss and endings in these songs that pack significant emotional impact, not only because of the tragedy that surrounds them, but also because the melodies and arrangements are often intrinsically melancholic. The strings that surround the finale of a piece like Lost, or the litanic piano of Catch Me If You Can, only reinforce the chills that inevitably flow through the listener when listening to In the End. But as they have often proved over the past three decades, this Irish band never loses sight of a certain hope and communicative energy. The lyrical melodies of Got It (with its overwhelming bass), and Summer Song are here to prove it. The ballads Illusion and In the End have a twilight quality, but of the softest and most benevolent sunshine there is. With this album recorded in London by producer Stephen Street (having already been at the helm of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? in 1993 and No Need to Argue in 1994), The Cranberries bow out with elegance and modesty. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz