The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
Many of you reading (or listening to) this immediately equate The Cranberries to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan’s distinctive accent as she belts out lyrics from the track Zombie, Zaaa-haaa-aaam-bi !
And that is precisely why I chose to review this album. I’ve picked up on the many decades of poking or ribbing by friends when it comes to Dolores’ voice. What many don’t realize, The Cranberries second studio album, No Need to Argue, is a masterpiece. Not only did it sell 17 million copies and reach #6 on the US Billboard Top 200 in 1994 and 1995, but it has also stood the test of time.
I’m not certain whether awards or accolades can really define an album as being great. But I think for many who did and many who did not grow up during the 1980s and 90s, it’s an album that was overlooked.
The band originally started in 1989. Prior to O’Riordan joining, lead singer Niall Quinn joined brothers Mike and Noel Hogan to form, The Cranberry Saw Us (or “The Cranberry Sauce” if you say it fast) along with drummer Fergal Lawler. It was during their early days, before obtaining a record contract, they submitted a demo tape to several record companies. When one of the tapes was returned addressed to “The Cranberries” the band reconsidered the name and decided to change it.
After the success of the band’s debut album, 1993’s Everybody Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We, the group was fresh off the album’s radio hits Linger and Dreams. They wanted to make a heavier album with more guitar distortion. Popular rock music in the early – mid 1990s was getting louder, grungier and grittier. The band knew they could write edgier songs but maintain that sweet sounding lullaby sound with O’Riordan’s singing voice.
A true talent, Dolores O’Riordan was born and raised by a working-class Catholic family in Limerick, Ireland. With eight brothers and sisters, naturally she took up singing at an early age by singing for her church choir. Her talent sparked as rumor and word around Limerick spread there was a local girl with an “angelic” singing voice. O’Riordan always said from an early age (age twelve actually) she would be a “rock star”.
Sadly, Dolores was a victim of sexual abuse from the early age of eight. This abuse would go on for four years by a person whom she trusted very deeply. As I was doing research on the topic, I found several interviews and articles with Dolores but none identifying her abuser.
Despite this significant trauma that would haunt her throughout her entire life, including during motherhood, O’Riordan was seen by many as boisterous, wild and lovely.
The Cranberries entered The Manor Studio, a recording studio tucked away in the countryside of Oxfordshire, England to record their sophomore record, No Need to Argue. Released on October 3rd, 1994, the album bolstered the band’s importance in Irish Music, particularly the traditional Irish Music mixed with modern day, mid 90s alternative.
The album opens with Ode to My Family, a somber yet positive love song to her mother and father. Dolores writes about the love her parents gave her and how it had a positive effect on how she was to try and remain positive throughout all the challenges she faced in her life at an early age. With help from Cranberries guitarist, Noel Hogan, Dolores writes about her longing for the simple life she once had as a child.
I can relate to this completely. In my previous episode, my guest Alon Ferency and I discuss how our childhoods were so impressionable. Sadly, when I think of the last 10 years, it seems like a blur, where I can remember details of when I was a child. Everything was new, right? Everything was fresh. We had not yet experienced heartbreak. We had not yet experienced deep loss (well thankfully I hadn’t yet). We didn’t know what we didn’t know. The world was our oyster! Anything was possible when we were children. Ode to My Family resonates with me for this very reason.
Full disclosure, when I purchased No Need to Argue in 1994, I did it on the down low. Today I am a proud owner of this record, but in 1994, as a younger man, I was self-conscious others would perceive me as “soft” if they found this record in my collection, next to all the Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, Slayer and Nirvana albums on my rack.
This album brings back fond memories of 1994 and 1995. I had moved from one high school to another and had finally found happiness. After a miserable experience getting bullied by teachers no less, I was finally in a place where I felt love and support, and there were many like-minded people who shared my love of music.
It was really the first time in my entire life up until that point where I would come home after a long day, run up to my room, put those Radio Shack JVC headphones on, press play, lay in bed and glance at my dimly lit halogen lamp. These lamps are probably illegal today as they were major fire hazards, but it gave the perfect amount of dim light that made the room feel soft, if you know what I mean?
On nights where I felt relaxed, I’d turn on No Need to Argue and just lay on a cloud, as it felt. Thanking what I once thought was an existing God that I had found happiness. Yes, those times were filled with joy. For each day brought a new friend, a new song I learned to play on guitar, and a new band to get turned on to. THAT my friends is what Heaven was and is to me.
Songs like I Can’t Be With You and Twenty-One continue with the heartbreaking beauty that is Dolores O’Riordan’s voice. Written on her twenty first birthday, Twenty-One, seems to be a bit of a goodbye to her childhood and a hello to her adulthood. For some cultures, particularly in the United States, twenty-one is a monumental age. Although they are considered an “adult” at age eighteen, twenty-one is when society starts to really treat you as one. Dolores’ vocal range in these tracks are tear-jerking. You really can hear her talent as she harmonizes with her own voice.
Like I do with many of my reviews, I’m spending a little time covering the radio hit. For anyone who knows this album, the track, Zombie appeared on the music scene a few weeks prior to the album’s release in October 1994. It may be the one Cranberries song played more than any other on the airwaves. Nevertheless, I am encouraging you to listen deeper to this album and discover or rediscover the richer tracks that are there.
Zombie was written by O’Riordan about war, specifically the conflict in Northern Ireland. Also called “The Troubles”, The Irish Republican Army (IRA) waged a war to end British rule in Northern Ireland which lasted from 1969 – 1998. The battle also consisted of two sides, the Protestants and the Catholics, resulting an all-out battle that killed over 3,000 people, including innocent men, women and children. The battle trickled into England as well. Dolores visited a town in England called Warrington after a bombing killed two children there in early 1993 and decided to write Zombie after this experience.
I am awestruck and nostalgic (what else is new) when the next track Empty begins. I think this song really showcases how The Cranberries was different in 1994 from the other bands considered within their genre. The sweet violin coupled with a barreling acoustic guitar gives way to O’Riordan’s voice. Once again, it carries the song.
Empty is another example of O’Riordon’s sullen lyrical subject and perhaps an early warning or cry for help.
When you read the lyrics:
“All my plans fell through my hand
They fell through my hands on me
All my dreams, it suddenly seems
It suddenly seems empty”
…one cannot help but feel Dolores’ pain and wonder how deep her agony was at this time.
I think it’s safe to assume Dolores was in a state of deep emotional pain when you read the additional song titles on the record such as, Disappointment, Ridiculous Thoughts, Daffodil Lament and Dreaming My Dreams. I would not consider No Need to Argue the ideal record for a workout, a summer barbecue or a pre-concert tailgate. But what the album does offer is an exceptional look into the artistic genius that is Dolores O’Riordan and her team of songwriters, Noel and Mike Hogan.
Just hearing her angelic vocal intro to Ridiculous Thoughts will bring you to tears, or at the very least help you appreciate her talent. This is just another example of someone who is deeply talented and cannot see through the darkness in their brain. They cannot see through the noise that is their own demons living in their own head.
Dreaming My Dreams is another track that deserves a listen. A magical 3:38 journey into a tragic soliloquy. I have difficulty keeping a dry eye for Dolores when I hear this.
The flight was about halfway finished from Europe to Boston. I was an eighteen-year-old kid, who’d just flown across the world to another country to find out if the relationship I was in would stand the test of time. To my frustration in the moment, it would indeed not last more than a summer fling. I’m blessed to be in a loving marriage today and have a wife who gives me breath and life. But most of us, had a first love, and I think it’s reasonable to admit all of us will never forget our firsts, no matter how happy we become in the future.
Like I always did and still do when I’m sad or anxious, I turn to music. On this specific TWA flight I decided for some reason that throwing this album No Need to Argue into my discman (yes you heard/read that correctly everyone) would help me fall asleep. It remains a vivid, very vivid memory even to this day. Have you ever fallen asleep in distress only to wake up quickly and for a fleeting moment, you sware you think that nightmare you experienced was just that? Just a nightmare? Just a dream?
I awoke to the album’s title track, and I think it was Dolores’ voice, not only pure sounding and kind, but also full of reality. Her lyrics were like a message, telling me, “That’s it man. No need to argue. She’s got her life over there, and you’re headed back home to continue your life”. I also remember thinking, “it’s over”. I can’t believe it, but it’s over. Be happy that it happened, because it was amazing”. And to this day, almost exactly 30 years later, I credit this song in that very monumental moment. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken nor written anything about how I felt during that time. Perhaps this is true closure. As the song came to a close, I stared out the window at the clouds and planned my next move, college.
This review would not be complete without mentioning Daffodil Lament arguably the album’s most impressive track. I use the word “impressive” as it sounds like 3 different songs all put together. Unlike most of the other tracks, Daffodil Lament includes progressive chord changes, time signature changes, pauses and a different darkness that turns to brightness.
At 6:08 it is the album’s longest track, with a transition like no other. It brings the listener a bit of optimism. It brings you the listener confidence as you follow along with the mood sung by O’Riordan that everything is going to be okay.
Sadly, things would eventually not be “okay” for Dolores O’Riordan. After a multi decade battle with depression, she was found unresponsive in the bathroom of her London hotel on January 15th, 2018. She was pronounced dead not long after her body was discovered. Toxicology reports ruled she had died as a result of drowning in the bathtub after being heavily sedated by alcohol. She was 46. Tabloids spread false rumors that fentanyl had been involved, but those rumors were later debunked.
With O’Riordan, The Cranberries would go on to record five more albums and adding a sixth, titled, In the End, a year after her death. In the End comprised of tracks the band had worked on prior to Dolores’ death and felt the need to release what they’d finished to honor her.
To this day, my heart breaks for O’Riordan, her family and her band mates, Mike Hogan, Noel Hogan and Fergal Lawler. But my memories of what this album means to me will never die. This was such an important album to me at a time when I was maturing a little in my musical taste and branching out. If you have not yet, you should branch out too. I doubt you’ll regret it.
