Music: The Cranberries 'No Need To Argue' 30th Anniversary Edition
The second album from Ireland's gifted and prolific pop quartet, now augmented and remastered for its 30th anniversary
“Call it youthful arrogance, but we knew the songs we’d written were good and couldn’t wait to get them down.” – Noel Hogan, The Cranberries
Dolores O’Riordan would have been 55 this year. As much as that sounds somber and also that O’Riordan – who died after drowning due to alcohol intoxication in January 2018 – possessed some of the most powerful vocals in alternative rock, its more than enough to be brought back to the fore in the (slightly delayed) 30th anniversary expanded release of The Cranberries’ sophomore album No Need To Argue.
In 1994, the band from Limerick, Ireland were in the midst of a circus-like atmosphere, basking in the accolades of their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?: catapulted to recognition as another successful Irish musical export, on par with U2 in terms of song sales (with “Dreams” and “Linger” gaining traction with the alternative market and college radio and entering the Top 50 of Billboard’s Hot 100), coupled with exposure on MTV and a breakthrough North American tour that saw their audience explode in numbers.
Not that anyone else would have the time or energy during this commercial storm, but the band – O’Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan (Noel’s brother) and drummer Fergal Lawler – found themselves not looking at a second album slump or even contemplating how they could manage to ascend the next rung on the musical ladder. Composing on the road, workshopping songs during concerts, and running on songwriting adrenaline, the quartet took a long weekend off in October 1993, brought back producer Stephen Street, and jumped into New York’s Magic Shop studio, eager to lay down demos of material, confirmed as Lawler noted in a recent interview that, “We were really playing well and playing tight together.”
After the tour, the band spent more time in the studio with Street at The Manor in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately, during a skiing holiday in the middle of recording, O’Riordan tore her cruciate ligament. The boys carried on until she recovered, and the remainder of the album was finished at Townhouse in London.
The Cranberries - Zombie (Official Music Video)/℗© 1994 Island Records Inc./YouTube
No Need To Argue released on October 3, 1994. However, the band dropped the first single “Zombie” on September 19. Within the framework of O’Riordan’s delicate vocals were housed the slash and burn accompaniment of Lawler and the Hogans against an unexpected and tough narrative:
Another mother's breaking/Heart is taking over/When the violence causes silence/We must be mistaken
Within the context of the music video (the original was banned by the BBC and RTÉ) and its politically charged lyrics, the band’s label Island Records feared the release of the song as a single would cause irreparable damage to The Cranberries as an alternative mainstay on the charts. However, those misplaced perceptions were thrown out the window as the single made headway across global charts and despite its storyline – O’Riordan’s Siouxsie Sioux-style incantation of The Troubles in Northern Ireland coupled with the IRA bombing deaths of two youngsters in Warrington, England – “Zombie” went on to become a flagship anthem for sports, film, television and numerous musicians who made it their own, including metal band Bad Wolves (O’Riordan had been scheduled to add her vocals the day of her death), Miley Cyrus and Irish singer-songwriter Bambi Thug.
The release of the album’s second single, “Ode To My Family,” in November marked a threaded continuation of O’Riordan’s observation of those around her, this time in a gentler, soothing tone. Invoking a wordless intro that gives the tune an instant hook, it cascades seamlessly between nostalgia and pathos. The video, shot in black and white brought the group into a familiar setting – an Irish pub – and a semi-autobiographical tone directed squarely at those who might have been reading O’Riordan wrong.
The Cranberries - Ode To My Family (Official Music Video)/℗© 1994 Island Records Inc./YouTube
The original release’s 13-track lyrics were all composed by O’Riordan, a step forward for the confident persona she projected and in many ways, a conscious effort to separate herself from that other Irish female singer who had decided to dive headlong into political controversy, wage war with her tumultuous inner demons while acknowledging the trials of motherhood and stardom. In that realm, it’s still a shock to the system that Sinéad O’Connor and Dolores O’Riordan struggled for understanding in a sometimes unforgiving environment that had them both sharing their complex inner feelings on a worldwide stage, yet left behind so many unanswered questions in their songs.
Noel and Mike Hogan are returning to the stage to play songs from The Cranberries at the sold-out Electric Picnic at Stradbally Hall, County Laois the weekend of August 29–31. They will be joined by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and a “very special guest” TBA.
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The 30th anniversary expanded edition of No Need To Argue, releasing August 15th, includes the full remastered album plus two remixes by Iain Cook of CHVRCHES ("Ode to My Family" and "Zombie"), the demo of "Zombie", live recordings from their performance at Woodstock '94 and the complete 1995 performance from MTV’s Unplugged.
Such a beautiful soul and voice gone too soon