Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why... [Remaster] - CD

Release Notes

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why... [Remaster]: Release Notes: Muze 
Full title: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?: The Complete Sessions 1991-1993.The Cranberries: Dolores O'Riordan (vocals, acoustic guitar); Noel Hogan (guitar, background vocals); Mike Hogan (bass); Feargal Lawlor (drums, percussion).Additional personnel: Mike Mahoney (background vocals).Recorded at Windmill Studios, Dublin, Ireland.All tracks have been digitally remastered.The Cranberries: Dolores O'Riordan (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, keyboards, whistle); Noel Hogan (acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin, background vocals); Mike Hogan (bass); Fergal Lawler (drums, percussion).Additional personnel includes: Luciano Pavarotti (vocals); Richie Buckley (tenor saxophone); Michael Buckley (baritone saxophone); Bruce Fairbairn (trumpet).Producers: Bruce Fairbairn, The Cranberries.Recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland in November & December 1995.All tracks have been digitally remastered.Personnel: Dolores O'Riordan (vocals, acoustic guitar); Noel Hogan (guitar, background vocals); Mike Hogan (bass guitar); Fergal Lawler (drums, percussion); Mike Mahoney (background vocals).Producers: Pearse Gilmore; Stephen Street; The Cranberries.Recording information: Surrey Sound (1991-1993).Photographers: Phil Smee; Andy Earl; Valerie Phillips.The Cranberries, more so than almost any contemporary group now coming out of Ireland, translate the lyric delicacy and metaphorical melancholy of Gaelic folk music to a rock format. The Cranberries are a tight little band with a sound all their own, though at times many of their songs do suggest some sort of strange communion between U2 and Bjork.How so? The gossamer strains of Noel Hogan's electric guitar recall The Edge's spacy chording, but Hogan's rhythmic focus tends more towards eclectic folk stylings (a la Richard Thompson) than the arena gestures of rock. Which isn't to say that his dancing interplay with bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Feargal Lawlor lacks impact. Quite the contrary. Songs such as "Dream" and "Waltzing Back" illustrate the band's special chemistry and harmonic buoyancy, as airy chording gives way to punchy riffs and gruff power chords.But it is The Cranberries remarkable vocalist Dolores O'Riordan who defines the band's unique sound and broad appeal. O'Riordan has an eccentric, emotive style and a stunning vocabulary of guttural whoops and throttled cries (to particular effect on "Pretty"). On "I Still Do" she doubletracks her breathless voice (as she does throughout EVERYBODY ELSE...), creating a mournful melodic ambience as the band rises to match her emotional peaks in a tale of a played out love that will not die.This plaintive tone of O'Riordan resonates throughout EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT, SO WHY CAN'T WE? "You mystify me, you mystify me" she intones dimly as if in a haze on "Sunday" as the band tolls away behind her, while on "Waltzing Back" her yodeling cries and muttered grace notes impart tremendous power to each phrase in this clannish dance.The songs on the Cranberries' third album touch on painful topics, dealing mainly with loss and the difficulties of growing toward true adulthood. Tragic inspirations include the deaths of singer-lyricist Dolores O'Riordan's grandfather ("Joe") and John Lennon ("I Shot John Lennon"); some import pressings also include "Cordell," an elegy for Denny Cordell, who signed the Cranberries to Island Records in 1991.Much of this material is bittersweet, but the songs are saved from dreary melancholy by the characteristic quirky Cranberries sound of O'Riordan's angelic voice, scattered with her trademark yelps and other vocal tics, juxtaposed against energetic, hard-edged guitar work by O'Riordan and Noel Hogan. In addition to the newly mature lyrics, there is also a new, rougher-edged sound to this album's production, which puts the music within easy reach and lends TO THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED an earthy appeal.Title aside, what the Cranberries were doing wasn't that common at the time, at least in mainstream pop terms; grunge and G-funk had done their respective big splashes via Nirvana and Dr. Dre when Everybody came out first in the U.K. and then in America some months later. Lead guitarist Noel Hogan is in many ways the true center of the band at this point, co-writing all but three songs with O'Riordan and showing an amazing economy in his playing, and having longtime Smiths/Morrissey producer Stephen Street behind the boards meant that the right blend of projection and delicacy still held sway. One can tell he likes Johnny Marr and his ability to do the job just right: check out the quick strums and blasts on "Pretty" or the concluding part of the lovely "Waltzing Back." O'Riordan herself offers up a number of romantic ponderings and considerations lyrically (as well as playing perfectly fine acoustic guitar), and her undisputed vocal ability suits the material perfectly. The two best cuts were the deserved smashes: "Dreams," a brisk, charging number combining low-key tension and full-on rock, and the melancholic, string-swept breakup song "Linger." If Everybody is in the end a derivative pleasure -- and O'Riordan's vocal acrobatics would never again be so relatively calm in comparison -- a pleasure it remains nonetheless, the work of a young band creating a fine little synthesis. [Everybody Is Doing It, So Why Can't We: The Complete Sessions 1991-1993 adds several bonus tracks, including "Reason," "Them," "What You Were," "Liar," a remix of "How," and the remix of "Pretty" that ended up on the Pret a Porter soundtrack.] ~ Ned Raggett

Credits

Performer The Cranberries
Engineers include:  Stephen Street , Aidan McGovern; Stephen Street

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why... [Remaster]: MUZE Review
Muze

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.52) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's."Rolling Stone (12/23/93, p.146) - "...entrancing tunefulness [with] Dolores O'Riordan's vocal audacity...they've accomplished a sharp, self-aware debut...."Entertainment Weekly (6/4/93, p.54) - "...The Cranberries are Quiet Storm music for the alternative-rock generation..." - Rating: BEntertainment Weekly (5/10/96, pp.71-72) - "...If the Cranberries once sounded as if they were sleepwalkers in a world gone weird, TO THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED sounds as if they've finally awakened. The may not like what they see, but at least they're ready and willing to scream about it." - Rating: A-Q (1/94, p.84) - Included in Q's list of 'The 50 Best Albums Of 1993' - "...creeps up on your consciousness and stubbornly refuses to leave...."Q (4/93, p.80) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...softly stroked guitars tenderized by a female voice of exceptional merit....deliciously spine-shivering moments....the melodies are festooned with dreamy hooks..."Alternative Press (7/93, p.66) - "...what really makes the Cranberries stand out is singer Dolores O'Riordan...a Stephen Street production job which makes even the Smiths seem uncompromisingly dense....A remarkable album by a remarkable band..."New York Times (Publisher) (4/28/96, Sec.2, p.34) - "...a song cycle about deaths, most of them early ones....the songs that work best are the ones in which the Cranberries rely on...ethereal guitars and warbly vocals that, like the band's lyrics, are simple but heartfelt."