Hidden Gem: The Cranberries

Today on hidden gems we are going to talk about a band who upcoming album release will be their last, and they are The Cranberries.

The Cranberries were formed in Limerick, Ireland back in 1989 with the Hogan Brothers on both bass, which Mike plays and guitar, which Noel plays, Fergal Lawler on drums and Niall Quinn on vocals. The band was originally named “The Cranberry Saw Us” and soon after Quinn left the group and later Dolores O’Riordan joined on vocals, and the rest was history.

The band’s first album “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” was released back in 1993 and it was a massive hit on release. O’Riordan vocals, the Hogan brothers bass, and guitar playing and Lawler drum playing made this album a joy to listen to with lyrics that sound happy go lucky but hides a hidden meaning behind them. The band second album “No Need To Argue” came out in 1994 and was a hit as well.

The band released three more albums as well which are:

To the Faithful Departed (1996)
Bury the Hatchet (1999)
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001)

In 2004 till 2008 the band took a hiatus and working on other projects, and in 2009 The Cranberries came back and went on tour again and released two more albums:

Roses (2012)
Something Else (2017)

Sadly Dolores O’Riordan passed away on January 15, 2018, and on April 26 of this year, the band will release their final album entitled “In The End” and Noel Hogan even said after the album is released they will not continue as The Cranberries out of respect of Dolores.

The Cranberries was a slice of life band, they told what was happening and going on at the time of each album. They never sugar-coated any subject, and with the memorable vocals of the late O’Riordan, this is a group one should listen to and hear what was going on at the time.