The Cranberries

The Cranberries are probably best known for their woeful and droning hit, "Zombie," a
song about the war-torn conditions in their homeland of Ireland. While the song wasn't as
moving as U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," it at least painted a picture as dreary as the
situation itself. On their third album, the Cranberries boldly take on more of the world's
problems, from drug addiction to the situation in Bosnia, and the band is overwh... More >

In which the deserving pop stars discover noise and politics simultaneously, and nuts to any part-of-the-problem who preferred them when they knew their dreamy place, right? Wrong. Tragically but also irritatingly, Dolores O'Riordan indulges all the vices people too stupid for Woody Guthrie or Linton Kwesi Johnson say politics bring out in music: she's strident, moralistic, simple-minded, full of herself. Not only is she shocked to discover that wars are caused by, I would never have guessed, "political pride" and "territorial greed," but she thinks she's a better person for telling Tchaikovsky the news. Better than you. Better than me. Better than Tchaikovsky. And much, much better than Alanis Morissette. (Grade: C+)