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Order the new CD, No Baggage by Dolores O'Riordan and get a limited* autographed CD booklet with purchase!
About Dolores O'Riordan:
First bursting upon the music scene as lead singer of The Cranberries, O'Riordan has been following a solo path since 2003. Her first solo disc, Are You Listening?, came out in 2007; now she presents her Cooking Vinyl Records follow-up, the slyly-titled No Baggage.
"I probably haven't worn my heart on my sleeve like this since the second Cranberries album [1994's No Need to Argue]," she says. " It's, at times, very confessional and dealing with my true emotions. Everyone, through their experiences or their background, has had terrible moments where they think they can't handle it. With this record I'm trying to show that, no matter how bad things may seem, it's not really that bad in the big picture."
Always a keen observer of human behavior in its many manifestations, O'Riordan says that lately she's been taking a closer look at her place in life, securely in what she calls a "middle generation" between her parents and her children. "It's been said before," she muses, "but it's incredible how quickly life evolves. Life really is a journey, and there's no such thing as perfection, really. I've come to see how important it is to accept the challenges and uncertainties that come up, and to accept them as a part of life. I never lack for inspiration," she adds, noting the ever-developing perspectives she shares with her various family members.
Born in 1971, in Ballybricken, Limerick, Ireland, she answered an ad in the early 1990s placed by brothers Noel and Mike Hogan seeking a lead singer for what was then called The Cranberry Saw Us. Impressed by O'Riordan's soaring vocal style and songwriting skill - she already had a rough version of "Linger" in hand - they soon offered her the gig. Led by "Linger," debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It... eventually hit No. 1 in Britain. Follow-up, No Need to Argue cemented the group's popularity via such popular tracks as "Zombie," "Ridiculous Thoughts," and "Ode to My Family" ultimately being certified 5X-platinum in Europe, and 7X-platinum in the U.S. The heavier-sounding To the Faithful Departed (1996) was followed by 1999's Bury the Hatchet and 2001's Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, each amply illustrating an evolving maturity and confidence - but also increasingly hinting at a growing world-weariness on the part of its seemingly tireless lead singer.
After thirteen years, five albums, countless concerts, and enormous international success with The Cranberries, in 2003 O'Riordan decided she'd had enough. "It had become too much of a compromise," she says of stardom. "At the end of the day, I was very much feeling like a product. The weird thing about having success with a record is that everyone says, 'Okay, now the next one has to be bigger and better!' Eventually it becomes very much a ball-and-chain situation, and I got tired of it. I wanted to be free of that collar."
Walking away from music for good, however, ultimately proved not to be an option. "I started writing just for the sake of writing," she recalls, "and over time I realized I wanted to get back into the spotlight a bit. There was a sort of 'Why do you want to do it all again?' feeling, but by that time the world was a different place, and I was surprised to find that I'd been missed. There was a kind of respect there, waiting for me. Sometimes it's good to go away for awhile," she laughs.
O'Riordan co-produced No Baggage with Ontario-based Dan Brodbeck, resulting in a bright, clean sound that finds the singer's still-astoundingly emotive voice front and center, be it on the gorgeously piano ballad 'Lunatic' or the forthright, anthemic rocker 'Be Careful.' But there's also room for sonic experimentation, most obviously on 'Throw Your Arms Around Me,' with its Indian-styled instrumentation and structure. It's a song that O'Riordan is clearly proud of. "That song's really about how there are two kinds of people: those who are believers and have faith, and those who scoff at such things," she says. "It has a kind of mysterious sound to it, unpredictable; it doesn't sound anything like normal."
Some fans may also be surprised to hear that O'Riordan remains friends with her former bandmates, but, after all, The Cranberries never really split up; instead, they went on hiatus. In fact, in January, O'Riordan played a set at Dublin's Trinity College with the brothers Hogan to commemorate her being made an Honorary Patron of Trinity's Philosophical Society. "We sort of checked each other out at first, counting gray hairs and examining waistlines," she laughs. "But when we started playing it was as if we'd never stopped; there were no nerves, nothing weird. It was completely natural, and it was nice to know that we still have that." Small wonder, then, that the ever-inquisitive O'Riordan continues to view life - and her place in it - with stoic calm.
The question posed by No Baggage is, clearly, meant sardonically. "I hope listeners find some comfort and can relate to what they hear with this record," she says. "The key is to realize that there's always hope. Thinking that can make it so." |
