(2023) The Cranberries - To the Faithful Departed (Deluxe Edition)
Review:
…a newly remastered deluxe edition feature a smattering of previously released bonus material beside two discs of almost entirely unreleased studio outtakes and live material. To the Faithful Departed was so named for the loss of two major forces in the band’s lives. Denny Cordell, who’d signed the Irish folk-rockers to Island Records at the start of the decade, died after a battle with lymphoma in 1995; singer Dolores O’Riordan’s grandfather Joe also died that same year. Both losses were bittersweet moments amid a time of great success for the band: their first two albums for Island, Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (1991) and No Need to Argue (1993), produced a spate of beloved radio staples including “Dreams,” “Linger” and “Zombie.” After working with producer Stephen Street on both albums, the band was keen to mix things up, but a session with producer Tim Palmer was halted after the band decided it was too close to their expected sound. “Tim was a lovely guy and the recordings sounded great, but we felt he was a little similar in style to Stephen Street, and we wanted to try something different,” drummer Fergal Lawler said. “We had been touring a lot and wanted more of a live sound.” Three of those demos – early versions of “When You’re Gone,” “Free to Decide” and “I JUst Shot John Lennon,” are included on the set’s bonus disc of studio material, alongside the unreleased songs “The Rebels” and “Hollywood” and eight alternate mixes. The group surprised fans and themselves by teaming up with Bruce Fairbairn, who’d overseen a slew of arena rock records in the late ’80s and early ’90s by Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, AC/DC and Van Halen. Despite the strange-on-paper bedfellows, To the Faithful Departed earned solid reviews and became their highest-charting album in America, reaching No. 4 (two spots higher than No Need to Argue). “Salvation” became the band’s fourth Top 10 single at home, topping Billboard‘s alternative rock chart; follow-up “Free to Decide” peaked in the Top 10 of that survey as well. Though supporting tours in Asia and North America were both halted – one due to a knee injury for O’Riordan and the other due to band exhaustion – enough dates went on to be chronicled in the set’s third disc, with many of the tracks previously unreleased. Writer Eoin Devereux has penned new notes for the project, drawing on new interviews with Lawler, guitarist Noel Hogan and bassist Mike Hogan as well as archival interviews with O’Riordan, who died in 2018. “As difficult as it was to hear Dolores’ voice, they brought back many fond memories,” Lawler said in a statement of the reissue. “I was shocked at how powerful they sounded and the strong emotions that I felt as I listened.” — SecondDisc
Track List:
Disc 1: Original album and bonus tracks
01 - Hollywood
02 - Salvation
03 - When You're Gone
04 - Free to Decide
05 - Warchild
06 - Forever Yellow Skies
07 - The Rebels
08 - Intermission
09 - I Just Shot John Lennon
10 - Electric Blue
11 - I'm Still Remembering
12 - Will You Remember
13 - Joe
14 - Cordell
15 - Bosnia
16 - The Picture I View
17 - Go Your Own Way
Disc 2: Demos and Outtakes (previously unreleased)
01 - When You're Gone (Paris Demo)
02 - I Just Shot John Lennon (Paris Demo)
03 - Free to Decide (Paris Demo)
04 - The Rebels (Outtake)
05 - Hollywood (Outtake)
06 - Cordell (Early Mix)
07 - Bosnia (Early Mix)
08 - Salvation (Early Mix)
09 - When You're Gone (Early Mix)
10 - Electric Blue (Early Mix)
11 - Intermission (Early Mix)
12 - Joe (Early Mix)
13 - Free to Decide (Alternate Mix)
Disc 3: Free to Decide Tour 1996
01 - Forever Yellow Skies (Live at CBC McGill St. Studio, Toronto/1996)
02 - Sunday (Live at the Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto/1996)
03 - Linger (Live at the Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto/1996)
04 - The Rebels (Live at the Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto/1996)
05 - Waltzing Back (Live at the Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto/1996)
06 - I Can't Be with You (Live at the Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto/1996)
07 - Free to Decide (Live at Pine Knob Music Theatre, Michigan/1996)
08 - Dreams (Live in Detroit/1996)
09 - Hollywood (Live in Detroit/1996)
10 - Zombie (Live in Detroit/1996)
11 - Dreaming My Dreams (Live in Detroit/1996)
12 - The Icicle Melts (Live in Detroit/1996)
13 - Salvation (Live at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes, UK/1996)
Media Report:
Genre: Rock
Country: Limerick, Ireland
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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