release date: Apr. 19, 1999
format: 2 cd (2000 special edition)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: The Cranberries and Benedict Fenner
label: Island Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 1. "Animal Instinct" - 2. "Loud and Clear" - 3. "Promises" - 4. "You and Me" - 5. "Just My Imagination" - 6. "Shattered" - 11. "Delilah"
4th studio album by The Cranberries released after a short hiatus - the band had faced poor reviews despite fine record sales with the previous album, To the Faithful Departed from 1996, and O'Riordan went through a period of stress-related illness, and she also gave needed time off the limelight as she have birth to her first child.
Bury the Hatchet is co-produced with a new producer and the sound and style has changed quite noticeable. Gone are the obvious links to alt. rock and almost also to the bold dream pop that characterised their previous releases, and instead this new album comes out as a more thoughtful and sincere album focusing on celtic rock with a stronger folk rock style and also more mainstream pop / rock references with jangle pop elements.
The album suffers, a bit like the predecessor, of a lack of consistent quality throughout, but the lows have clearly been levelled up, and it turns out much of a whole, and in that way easily betters the '96 album. The first four songs here are actually quite fine compositions pointing to something truly fine. The quality drops a bit in the second part and towards the end, and a track like "Copycat" sounds much like an outtake from the '96 album. Having said that, this is still a much better album than their last effort, and it's also a release with one of Ireland's most poignant voices and songwriters and as such an album clearly above the majority of mainstream pop / rock releases.
The 2000 Special Edition has been issued with the subtitle "The Complete Sessions" and feature a second disc containing five bonus tracks and seven previously unreleased live songs recorded in Paris Dec. 9, 1999.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3 / 5, USA Today 2,5 / 5 stars ]
