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This 90s rock quartet from Ireland found immediate success with their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We. The title sounds like something a child would complain to his strict mother. The cover of the CD looks as though the group were put in a time out on the couch, all pouty and in a bad mood. At this point in time, the rock music world was still excited about Grunge, Janet Jackson, Garth Brooks and Whitney Houston, and The Cranberries come along to offer their brand of Celtic flavored Rock. Dolores O’Riordan’s brand of lovelorn lyrics hit home in a big way with songs like Dreams and Linger.          

When Dreams was released as a single, it seemed to be everywhere. It felt as if it had been around forever, it was all over the radio, in elevators, in movie soundtracks, television, just everywhere. In fact 20 years later, this song is still everywhere. The track has a straight ahead rock sound with a nice clean sound on the guitar, with lots of focus on the drums and bass. Dolores’ vocals have an alluring thick Irish accent which unfortunately makes it hard to distinguish the lyrics. She gives the song a Middle Eastern feel especially when she sings along with the backing vocals from O’Riordan’s ex, Mike Mahoney, during the long a capella fade out. Linger is another huge song from this debut. The beautiful lush orchestra meshes well with the band as O’Riordan delivers the vocal accompanied by her own harmony lead. She also adds an angelic-like solo chant in the background during the chorus that sounds haunting. In Adam Sandler’s film Click, Dolores made a cameo appearance and gave a new version of the classic.  

Before you go ahead and think to yourself that it would be easier to just get these two amazing songs on one of their ‘greatest hits’ compilations, you better sit back down. The Cranberries had created a real classic here, where all twelve songs are really good. Having said this, there really isn’t much deviation from the formula that created Linger or Dreams. Still Can’t… has the clean guitar accenting the bass melody and drumbeat with Dolores delivering the lyrics in a chanting kind of way. Sunday is another minor hit from the CD, making some headway in the US. The intro is a haunting, reverb filled slow start that segues into an up tempo track, repeating the first verse in the intro toward the end. The band again utilizes an orchestra to back up the band.

Pretty is a favorite of mine, the band playing their usual ethereal back-up to Dolores’ chanting lyrics. She repeats herself a lot, and she has a unique style to her lyrics, at points sounding like Yoda from Star Wars (that is if I got the lyrics right). Waltzing Back is one of the tracks that Dolores had written on her own, she sings with a yodeling like vocal, and the band give a traveling kind of beat as the drumbeat mimics a marching beat at times. Yet perhaps as commercial as they sound to me, their music is not everyone’s cup of tea. I remember playing this in front of a woman who was a bit older than me and she complained that it sounds as if the CD was skipping, (I believe the song was Not Sorry) as Dolores loves to repeat herself in a chanting way.

I love that the band was able to give such a unique alternative to what was mainstream, and yet they became mainstream themselves. Yet no one who has come after sounds like The Cranberries, even their own later albums added a bit of variety as they went along. A song like Zombie from their second LP has a much harder edge, and then their third album added a bit of pop as well. This debut from The Cranberries will always be one of my favorites. I give this 4 stars.


The Cranberries
Everybody Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?
Length:  41:04 minutes
Released: March 1st, 1993   
Rating: 4 stars
 the Songs:
1. I Still Do
2. Dreams
3. Sunday
4. Pretty
5. Waltzing Back
6. Not Sorry
7. Linger
8. Wanted
9. Still Can’t
10. I Will Always
11. How
12. Put Me Down

Recommended: Yes