Dolores O'Riordan
No Baggage

"No Baggage" is Dolores O'Riordan's second solo effort, which shares with us the changes in her life. Fully satisfied with her children, her home in Canada, and having overcome her husband's mother's grief, she offers a serene, relaxed album that, as usual, is reflected in her new look: short hair (not too much), layered fringe, blonde, and above all, tanned like we've never seen before, completed with all-white outfits.

If "Are You Listening?" struck us with its rock vein, "No Baggage" lulls us with high-quality pop melodies, which, however, leave a bit of a bittersweet taste. Dolores's voice remains the same, always valid, always varied, yet "tamed" in this album. Although the album hasn't been fully listened to by many (sales don't reach those of the previous work), the single (in the fourth place on the track list) "The Journey" has been repeatedly played on radio and TV, also featured at Coca-Cola Live @ MTV - The Summer Song, and placed among the fourteen finalists; it's a pleasant, sunny song, which could resemble the Cranberries' single "Stars", in short, a good single that effectively drives the album. "It's You", which instead occupies the third place on the track list, was also performed live for MTV in an acoustic version during Valentina Correani's show, who cannot hide (and why should she?) her affection for Dolores. The song was inspired by her father and is a beautiful declaration of love to the family in true O'Riordan style.

The rock in this album is revived by the second track "Skeleton", an honest rock piece where the singer invites us to confront the "skeletons in the closet" and simultaneously reflect on the fact that you can't "run faster than your skeleton". It's a well-crafted song if it weren't for the electric guitar background, which is dangerously close to "Loser" from the previous album that, for some reason, returns in a slightly modified version in the B-side (what was wrong?). To stay on the line of "Loser" and the series sometimes returning, we find in the seventh position "Apple of My Eye", almost copied and pasted from "Are You Listening?", we'll admit it's a song full of charm, and the reasons prompting O'Riordan to include it in the album are purely sentimental, but I wonder, in two years, why does Dolores recycle two already tested songs? Instead, continuing to the eighth position, we find something brand new, "Throw Your Arms Around Me", which shows us an ethnic Dolores dealing with a melody with Indian twists. More consistent, both with the new politics and the previous album, "Fly Through" and "Tranquilizer", pretty songs with pop-rock twists. A song that agrees thematically, but sound-wise clashes with "Salvation", is "Be Careful", which at the sixth place in the album plays its pop ballad cards, slightly reminiscent of "Fee Fi Fo" to say, "don't drink, don't do drugs". In the tenth position, we have "Lunatic" which sounds at times like an invitation, and at others like a threat, sharing with "Stupid" (fifth track) the piano in the background, an instrument extensively used by Dolores in this album. Lastly, we have the first track, which, in my opinion, is one of the best moments of the album: "Switch Off the Moment"; this is the piece where I see the Ireland from the early works with the Cranberries and it makes us reflect on how, from insomnia, great singers can bring out beautiful songs.

In conclusion, I can say that those who didn't like the solo Dolores of "Are You Listening?" will like this album even less, those who have never liked Dolores since '92 won't change their minds with this album (it's worth mentioning that Dolores is either liked or despised, there's no middle ground), but for fans, this is a new stage in the singer's life, which finally seems to be proceeding smoothly. Although I prefer her more rock works, in this album Dolores makes good use of her pop knowledge, of course, it's enjoyable to listen to, but we are still waiting for the next "Zombie", which if I'm not mistaken already exists and it's "Hollywood", but seems forgotten, if not erased from this album, Dolores feels like she's in Hollywood now.