Album: “To the Faithful Departed (The Complete Sessions 19”

Description

The Cranberries: Dolores O'Riordan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, keyboards, whistle); Noel Hogan (acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, background vocals); Mike Hogan (bass); Fergal Lawler (drums, percussion). Additional personnel includes: Luciano Pavarotti (vocals); Richie Buckley (tenor saxophone); Michael Buckley (baritone saxophone); Bruce Fairbairn (trumpet). Producers: Bruce Fairbairn, The Cranberries. Recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland in November & December 1995. All tracks have been digitally remastered. The songs on the Cranberries' third album touch on painful topics, dealing mainly with loss and the difficulties of growing toward true adulthood. Tragic inspirations include the deaths of singer-lyricist Dolores O'Riordan's grandfather ("Joe") and John Lennon ("I Shot John Lennon"); some import pressings also include "Cordell," an elegy for Denny Cordell, who signed the Cranberries to Island Records in 1991. Much of this material is bittersweet, but the songs are saved from dreary melancholy by the characteristic quirky Cranberries sound of O'Riordan's angelic voice, scattered with her trademark yelps and other vocal tics, juxtaposed against energetic, hard-edged guitar work by O'Riordan and Noel Hogan. In addition to the newly mature lyrics, there is also a new, rougher-edged sound to this album's production, which puts the music within easy reach and lends TO THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED an earthy appeal.