Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By The Cranberries, Warner/Chapple Music/BMG 2019.
A very special thanks to my friend Neil from Services Australia for this album and the one from Florence and The Machine.
He is an enthusiast with excellent taste in a broad range of musical genres.
In The End is the final release from Irish band The Cranberries and contains the last recordings of lead singer Delores O’Riordan, who died of accidental drowning in January 2018.
Delores O’Riordan is widely regarded as having one of the best voices in popular music and her untimely passing, along with other icons who have left us recently such as David Bowie, has left a huge void in popular music.
It’s hard to overstate the impact of The Cranberries, and in particular Delores, on Irish consciousness, and on world music in general.
The Cranberries had many world-wide hits with the single Zombie, and the album that it came from, No Need To Argue, being regarded amongst the greatest records of all time.
In The End is a beautiful, and fitting, tribute to the genius of Delores O’Riordan.
By December 2017 Delores had completed all the demos of the songs for the album and sent them on to fellow songwriter and bandmate Noel Hogan.
The band planned to enter the studio in January 2018 to finish the album when they were told of her death.
It took them some time to come to the decision to honour Delores’ memory by completing the album and the resultant record is one of the best of their long career.
In The End was produced by long time producer Stephen Street, and I personally feel that it is right up there with No Need To Argue.
I’ve always loved Delores wonderful Irish (Limerick) accent and her breathy vocals. It’s a voice that is remarkable expressive, that can be as soft as velvet and then howl like a Banshee, a voice that can bring me to tears.
Delores has always worn her heart on her sleeve and the songs on In The End are no exception.
Songs like All Over Now, Lost, Wake Me When It’s Over, and particularly the closing title track In The End feel as if she had a premonition that her time was coming to a close.
The remaining band members acknowledge that recording the album was an emotional process, but their efforts have resulted in the perfect love letter to their colleague and friend.
