The Cranberries have released “All Over Now,” the first song from their final album with singer Dolores O’Riordan, who passed away last year.
“I can’t think of a more fitting way to commemorate the first anniversary of Dolores’ passing and to celebrate her life than to announce to the world the release of her final album with the band,” said Eileen O’Riordan, the singer’s mother, in the album’s announcement.
Helmed by longtime producer Stephen Street (Blur, the Smiths), “In the End” is the group’s eighth and, according to the announcement, final album after 30 years as a band. It is scheduled for release April 26 on BMG.
The group — O’Riordan, Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler — emerged from Limerick, Ireland in the early 1990s, and quickly became one of the leading groups of the era with songs like “Linger”, “Zombie” and “Dreams.”
According to the announcement, the group began work on “In the End” in May 2017 while on tour. By the end of 2017, weeks before O’Riordan’s accidental drowning death on Jan. 18, she and Hogan had written and demoed the 11 songs that would eventually appear on the album.
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“Dolores was so energized by the prospect of making this record and to getting back out on the road to play the songs live,” recalls Hogan, who said the band ultimately decided to complete the album as a tribute to the singer.
“We knew this had to be one of the, if not the, best Cranberries album that we could possibly do,” he said. “The worry was that we would destroy the legacy of the band by making an album that wasn’t up to standard. Once we had gone through all the demos that Dolores and I had worked on and decided that we had such a strong album we knew it would be the right thing and the best way that we could honor Dolores.”
The band spent four weeks with Street building the album around her vocals from the original demos. “It was a bittersweet time,” Hogan said. “The joy of recording new tracks is always exciting and one of the best parts of being in a band. At the end of every day when we’d laid down our parts there was a sense of sadness, knowing that Dolores wouldn’t be in that evening to work on that day’s track.”
Speaking about the single and the album Dolores’ mother said, “I miss her awfully, specially today, as does the entire family. That said I can’t think of a more fitting way to commemorate the first anniversary of her passing and to celebrate her life than to announce to the world the release of her final album with the band. She was very excited about this new album and was really looking forward to its release. I have no doubt that she is happy now and would be delighted with today’s announcement.”
“In the End” tracklist:
- All Over Now
- Lost
- Wake Me When It’s Over
- A Place I Know
- Catch Me If You Can
- Got It
- Illusion
- Crazy Heart
- Summer Song
- The Pressure
- In the End