The Cranberries
In The End

It's incredibly difficult to talk about this album, for obvious reasons. Any positive judgment could be deemed lacking in objectivity following the premature loss of Dolores O'Riordan; the heart, soul, and recognizable element of an ultra-popular band like the Cranberries.

Therefore, an extraordinary balancing act is necessary to give a judgment, or at least an idea, of what "In The End" is, the final release of a band that has been an important flagbearer of pop rock for the last twenty-five years. After the untimely death of the frontwoman, the remaining members decided (after receiving the "blessing" from Dolores' family) to continue working on the new album, which had already begun with the singer still alive.

So here we are at the closing of a circle, with historic producer Stephen Street returning to his place, and Noel Hogan and his companions deciding to give a shape to the vocal demos already prepared by O'Riordan, demos that fortunately were already convincing and almost ready to be used (the undeniable vocal talent of the Irish artist, even though during the editing phase, the help of backing vocalist Johanna Cranitch, who toured with the band in 2012, was needed).

Here is "In The End": a tribute to the memory of an unforgettable singer, true, but also an authentic album, which (predictably) represents the quintessence of the sound of a band now destined to prematurely close its own history. A delicate album, at times very dark ("Lost"), but certainly not a musical obituary.

There are beautiful melodic openings in typical Cranberries style (that Smiths-like flair in Hogan's guitars combined with Dolores' unique voice) that directly refer to the sound of the early, beautiful albums of the Irish band, a return to origins that feels like a definitive closure of the circle ("A Place I Know", "Illusion", the wonderful and heartbreaking "In The End"), and there are even a couple of episodes where the band raises the stakes and returns to weaving slightly more aggressive arrangements (one can't help but think of "Zombie" when listening to the refrain of "Wake Me When It's Over", just as the opener "All Over Now" cleverly mixes Smiths and Cure).

"Summer Song" evokes certain quintessentially pop atmospheres that the Cranberries explored in some episodes of "Bury The Hatchet" ("Just My Imagination", "Animal Instinct"), adding color to a studio track that risked becoming a monument to memory rather than an album with a life of its own.

Hogan and company avoid this effect and deliver to the market a beautiful album, absolutely worthy of concluding an important and now historical career.

A great farewell gift.

Best track: In The End