Wow, I can’t believe how slack I’ve been with this blog for the past year. Please forgive me. Moving back to the States several months ago put a lot of things out of sync for me.
For now, though, let me say this:
The new album is ready, and has been for a few months now. I just ended up with some rather important unrelated things (taking the GRE, applying to graduate programs) to complete before releasing the album. Now that those are done, I’ll be able to get back to the new album release.
In the meantime, I highly recommend you check out the below Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR Music site. The Cranberries, one of my favorite bands from the 90s, does a smart little set. I would say that their music was revelatory for me in the mid-90s. Possibly even life-changing. I remember where I was the first time I heard “Zombie”: I was stuck at a stoplight on Falls of the Neuse Road in Raleigh, NC. I was just blown away by that guitar tone, and by the passion in Dolores O’Riordan voice. I had grown up mostly on acoustic music, except for listening to The Beatles every day for about 18 months when I was 13 and 14.
So much of the power behind the production of “Zombie” is influenced by the work of producer Stephen Street, who also produced The Smiths. “Zombie” is one of those iconic productions where the dynamic goes from really soft in the verses to really loud in the choruses. Ironically, perhaps, The Cranberries paved my way into finally listening to Nirvana in later years, who used that same production style in “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. The Pixies did those kinds of productions, too. It’s a powerful production style, and one we don’t see much of today.
Anyways, it’s great to see Dolores and the rest of the crew performing again. “Zombie” hits around the 12:15 mark.
And they have a new album that comes out TODAY called Roses. Oh, and go check the official Cranberries site.
