release date: Apr. 30, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Bruce Fairbairn and The Cranberries
label: Island Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 2. "Salvation" - 3. "When You’re Gone" - 4. "Free to Decide" - 9. "I Just Shot John Lennon" - 11. "I’m Still Remembering"
3rd studio album by The Cranberries with a new producer after two consecutive albums with The Smiths-producer Stephen Street. Amongst others, Bruce Fairbairn has produced for Van Halen, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi - bands that operate in a total different playground than a band associated with dream pop and jangle pop, and it never becomes apparent for whatever reasons he was brought about. Stadium rock and a heavy production sound seems out of touch here, and frankly, Street didn't do a bad job either.
The album wasn't met by the same positive reviews as the band's first two albums, but it still became the bands second best-selling album reaching number #1 in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and peaking as number #2 in the UK, only surpassed by the '94 album.
I always found it a lesser release, but in retrospect I have come to see it in a much more positive light. It doesn't showcase a bunch of fine hits, and it also contains tracks where the band seems to reproduce former successful elements and structures as heard on previous hits, e.g. "Hollywood", "Salvation", "Forever Yellow Skies", and "Electric Blue". And the lows... the lows here are truly low.
I recall my first listen to "Salvation" - at a time when MTV was up front, and watching the video and listening to the song made be decide, it was not intended for me. But it also contains some fine songs, and one truly great composition, the ballad "When You're Gone". A few fine and one great cannot safe this album from being a bit on the low side, and I do understand many of the critics 'cause it does deliver on the same level as the two previous albums, and the band sounds more like they have run somewhat out of material. O'Riordan is a great songwriter and singer - no doubt about that, but this is not one of their best.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 2 / 5, USA Today 2,5 / 5 stars ]
