As they prepare to release their final album, The Cranberries have shared the record’s title track “In The End.” The last song recorded for the album, and the last track on the album, it is an apt conclusion to a record that pays tribute to Dolores O’Riordan and brings to a close the band’s singular career.
“What a way to finish the record. To have “In The End” as the last song is just perfect,” says Fergal Lawler. “Lyrically it is self-explanatory,” adds Noel Hogan. “It speaks for itself, it just is a lovely feeling and it’s a gorgeous song”
Ain’t it strange?
When everything you wanted
Was nothing like you wanted?
In the end
While many bands may aspire to be timeless, or have a sound that transcends the whims of musical fashion, The Cranberries are one of the few to have achieved that. Play one of the Irish rock group’s early anthems such as “Linger” or “Dreams,” and they sound as fresh – and deliver as much of an emotional sucker-punch – as when they captured a generation’s hearts in the 1990s.
Now, nearly 30 years after the quartet of singer/songwriter and musician Dolores, co-songwriter and lead guitarist Noel, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal first appeared, they are releasing their eighth and final album In the End.
The genesis of In The End began in May 2017 while the band was on tour. By winter of 2017 Noel and Dolores had written and demoed the eleven songs, which would eventually appear on the album. “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 Noel.
Produced once again by Stephen Street, In the End sees the band coming full circle, with a collection that evokes their very first LP. “When we listened to the demos, the three of us and Stephen were thinking ‘this sounds much closer to the first album than anything else’. Dolores was singing very softly on some songs, which was closer to how she would have sung back then, and the simplicity of some of the songs as well brought us back to that time,” says Noel.
