In The End
$30.00
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The Cranberries
In The End
[ BMG / ADA / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 26 April 2019
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Thirty years after forming in Limerick (initially as The Cranberry Saw Us), The Cranberries release their 8th and final album. While it is tinged with sadness following Dolores' unexpected death on January 15th 2018, 'In The End' is not a valediction, it is a celebration, one that stands as a powerful testimony to the life and creative work of Dolores and her brothers in music.
The genesis of 'In The End' began in May 2017 while the band were on tour. By winter of 2017, Noel and Dolores had written and demoed the eleven songs that would eventually appear on the album.
In coming to terms with her tragic passing, Noel, Mike and Fergal listened to the songs and, with the support of Dolores' family, wanted to honour their close friend, and collaborator by completing the record.
With the songs at various stages of completion they turned to Stephen Street and spent 4 weeks in a London studio building the sounds around her vocals from the original demos.
The album is a strong goodbye from the band to their fans, a fitting tribute to their bandmate and friend and, most importantly, a collection of powerful songs that can take their rightful place with The Cranberries' previous six records.
"Dolores O'Riordan's 2018 death casts a long shadow over her band's final album, completed posthumously. Many of the titles - Lost, All Over Now and such - seem to unwittingly allude to it. Then there is the chilling poignancy of her opening line: "Remember the night in a hotel in London …", which conjures up a tragic reminder of the location of her passing. However, such unfortunate coincidences shouldn't detract from what - pieced together with loving care by her surviving bandmates - is a wonderful epitaph.
Musically, the band's trademark Smiths' chimes and New Order basslines are augmented by strings and pianos. Wake Me When It's Over recalls the hit Zombie with its mix of prosaic and sincere ("fighting's not the answer … It's eating you like cancer"), but the songs, like her crystal voice, are pure and heartfelt. The Pressure and Catch Me If You Can candidly address stresses at the top. Illusion (a "story of failure and glory") and Crazy Heart offer lovely, classy pop.
The superbly jangly Summer Song ("rolling in the grass, some things never last") conjures up the innocent purity of early hits Linger, Dreams et al. "Sorry I left you … I went insane there," she whispers to a child on A Place I Know. Many tears will surely well for the closer, In the End, in which O'Riordan admits "When everything you wanted was nothing like you wanted" in a song as beautiful as anything they've done."
4 / 5 The Guardian
Tracks:
1. All Over Now
2. Lost
3. Wake Me When It's Over
4. A Place I Know
5. Catch Me If You Can
6. Got It
7. Illusion
8. Crazy Heart
9. Summer Song
10. The Pressure
11. In the End
