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Rating: I heard Dolores O'Riordan disparage this album with these words: “I made it at a terrible time in my life, when I was getting by on cigarettes and wine. Then we took a break and returned with a better album”.
The memory that O'Riordan has of this work is entirely personal and, as such, must be respected, but there’s absolutely no comparison between “To the Faithful Departed” and the relatively mediocre “Bury the Hatchet”.
“To the Faithful Departed” is certainly not at the same level as “No Need to Argue,” but it remains an excellent Pop album. It’s somewhat saddening to see that it joins the list of albums underestimated by critics and, in a sense, also by the public (7 million copies sold, less than half of the previous one, which, however, had a single like “Zombie” to boost it).
Its major flaw is the length: 14 songs weren't enough, so the Cranberries thought it wise to add an instrumental as well. How nice it would be if albums were 9 songs and 40 minutes.
In terms of composition, they are always the Cranberries: a few repeated chords, but with skillful and sober use of guitars that manage to give the songs a very “ethereal” atmosphere. Then there’s always the melodic talent of Dolores which, combined with her voice, makes the pieces memorable. The Cranberries were not great composers and musicians, but certainly excellent “songwriters.”
Being an underrated album, I want to do it some justice by analyzing the songs and the lyrics.
We start with “Hollywood,” a great track, but with lyrics that, frankly, I can’t decipher. A wasted masterpiece due to lack of work on the lyrics.
Next is “Salvation,” a song against drugs, cruelly criticized for being “banal and naïve.” Indeed, in some parts, it is naïve. Dolores used drugs, as she stated, but managed to escape the tunnel and in this song, she expresses her joy for having succeeded, saying “salvation is free.” With some improvement in the verses, it could have been an excellent song. Musically, however, it is, in my opinion, the lowest point of the album.
“When You’re Gone,” is a sweet electric ballad. Here you find the “art of minimalism” of the Cranberries: a few notes of electric guitar, and a bit of organ. The lyrics are simple, but not banal and not gushy: since I met you I’m starting to believe in love again; even if everything around me disgusts me, next to you I can be more positive.
“Free to Decide” is an excellent song with excellent lyrics. In the verses, Dolores sends a journalist who targeted her “to Hell”. “There’s a war in Sarajevo and you’re wasting time with me.”
“War Child” is instead a delicate acoustic ballad. Great in terms of lyrics. It’s not a song about children victims of war - as I have read several times. It speaks of veterans, poetically called “children of war.” Effective the image of the Vietnam veteran in New York. Even though the song is delicate, the singer does not refrain from her harsh realism when she writes the real reason for 99% of wars: territorial greed (“territorial greed”). (In Iraq it was “under-territorial greed”).
“The Rebels” is a nice slow song, in which Dolores seems to mock those who never stop being “rebels without a cause” and never grow up (“We will never grow”). It's a minor track on the album, but in the next one, it would have been outstanding.
“Electric Blue” is a prayer, probably to Christ (with his electric blue eyes) to whom she asks for help (“Domine Deus adiuva me”) and to her guardian angel with whom the singer feels protected. Dolores could have added something more in the verses, perhaps writing the fears that plagued her. As the Cranberries said, the record company forced them to come out without them being fully convinced of the songs’ completeness.
“I Just Shot John Lennon” is a nice text - even though, again, it would have been appropriate to add another verse. Lennon is O'Riordan’s idol and it is evident that the singer knows his story well, when she writes: “From that moment on, Lennon's life stopped being a debate”. The music doesn’t thrill me. Instead of wasting such lyrics with such an anonymous tune, they could have used the music of “Hollywood” (which doesn’t have real lyrics) and made it a slow song.
“I’m Still Remembering” is a splendid acoustic-electric ballad. My favorite song on the album, for its brilliant guitar and due to its cathartic ending. The lyrics are quite dark, a struggle against the mind's demons. It's a letter that Dolores writes to her husband. She’s alone and needs him because her mind is playing tricks, and she “is going crazy,” recalling mistakes made before becoming his wife. She is waiting for peace to return like the “cream that always rises to the top.”
“Joe” and “Cordell” are two other beautiful ballads that recall Dolores’s grandfather and a missing friend. The mandolin in “Joe” is really used with grace.
“Bosnia” is a gem, and, as far as it goes, the best lyrics on the album. Dolores expresses how guilty she felt being safe in her land, while in Sarajevo people were dying every day. From Sarajevo, she moves to talk about the lack of love in the world. At the end, she screams asking: love, and love for life.
“Will You Remember” is a bitter memory of her ex-boyfriend, to whom she asks if he will remember “the future we planned together.” In the end, she concludes: “I’ll simply love you in vain.” The idea is excellent, but the result is really without depth. It sounds like a nursery rhyme.
“Forever Yellow Skies” is a song where the singer seems to have a grudge against someone. Frankly, they could have done without it.
With a little more work on the verses and a few songs less, this album could be a Pop masterpiece. I hope someone, reading the review, will listen to it. It's pop-rock, but classy.
After interrupting the tour at the end of 1996, Dolores - by then one of the most popular performers in the world - would become a mother, and would write the next album on her own, sending the pieces already made to the other three members.
So, “To the Faithful Departed” is the swan song of the Cranberries as a group.
Even if the Cranberries continued to write some of their “four-chord and unpretentious jewels” (“Promises,” “Shattered,” “Fee Fi Fo,” “Dying in the Sun,” “Dying Inside,” “Chocolate Brown,” and a few others) they could have stopped here, leaving an excellent memory - unblemished and without degradation into easy pop.
I give it a 4, but it's more than that.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Hollywood (05:08)
I've got a picture in my head (in my head)
It's me and you, we are in bed (we are in bed)
You'll always be there when I call (when I call)
You'll always be there most of all (all, all, all)
This is not Hollywood
Like I understood
This is not Hollywood
Like, like, like
This is not Hollywood
Like I understood
This is not Hollywood
Like, like, like
Away, runaway, is there anybody there
Away, runaway, is there anybody there
Get away, get away, get away
Get away, get away, get away
I've got a picture in my room, (in my room)
I will return there I presume. (should be soon)
The greatest irony of all, (shoot the wall)
It's not so glamorous at all (at all at all)
This is not Hollywood
Like I understood
This is not Hollywood
Like, like, like
This is not Hollywood
Like I understood
This is not Hollywood
Like, like, like
Runaway, runaway, is there anybody there
Runaway, runaway, is there anybody there
Get away, get away, Get away
Get away, get away, Get away
This is not Hollywood
(Runaway) This is not Hollywood
02 Salvation (02:25)
To all those people doing lines
Don't do it, don't do it
Inject your soul with liberty
It's free, it's free
To all the kids with heroin eyes
Don't do it, don't do it
Because it's not, not what it seems
No, no it's not, not what it seems
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
To all those parents with sleepless nights
(Sleepless nights)
Tie your kids home to their beds
Clean their heads
To all the kids with heroin eyes
Don't do it, don't do it
Because it's not, not what it seems
No, no it's not, not what it seems
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
Salvation, salvation, salvation is free
03 When You're Gone (04:58)
Hold on to love,
that is what I do
Now that I've found you
And from above,
everything's stinking
When they're not around you
And in the night,
I could be helpless
I could be lonely,
sleeping without you
And in the day,
everything's complex
There's nothing simple,
when I'm not around you
But I miss you when you're gone
That is what I do, Hey Baby
And it's going to carry on,
That is what I knew, hey, Baby
Hold on to my hands
I feel I'm sinking,
sinking without you
And to my mind,
everything's stinking
Stinking without you
And in the night,
I could be helpless
I could be lonely,
sleeping without you
And in the day,
everything's complex
There's nothing simple,
when I'm not around you
And I miss you when you're gone
That is what I do, hey, Baby
And it's going to carry on
That is what I do, hey, Baby
04 Free to Decide (04:26)
It's not worth anything more than this at all
I live as I choose or I will not live at all
So return to where you've come from
Return to where you dwell
Because harassment's not my forte
But you do it very well
I'm Free To Decide, I'm free to decide
And I'm not so suicidal after all
I'm Free To Decide, I'm free To decide
And I'm not so suicidal after all (at all, at all)
You must have nothing more with your mind to do
There's a war in Russia and Sarejevo, too
So to hell with what you're thinking
And to hell with your narrow mind
You're so distracted from the real thing
You should leave your life behind (behind)
I'm Free To Decide, I'm free to decide
And I'm not so suicidal after all
I'm Free To Decide, I'm free to decide
And I'm not so suicidal after all (at all, at all)
I'm Free To Decide, I'm free to decide
And I'm not so suicidal after all (at all, at all)
At all, At all, At all
05 War Child (03:51)
Who will save the war child baby
Who controls the keys
The web we weave is thick and sordid
Fine by me
At times of war
We're all the losers
There's no victory
We'll shoot to kill, and kill your lover
Fine by me
War Child
Victim of political pride
Plant the seed, territorial greed
Mind, the war child.
We should mind, the war child
I spent last winter in New York
And came upon a man
He was sleeping on the streets and homeless
He said, I fought in Vietnam
Beneath his shirt he wore the mark
He bore the mark of pride
A two-inch deep incision carved
Into his side
War Child!
Victim of political pride
Plant the seed, territorial Greed
Mind, the war child
We should mind, the war child
Who's the loser now
Who's the loser now
We're all the losers now
We're all the losers now
War child, war child
06 Forever Yellow Skies (04:11)
Yellow skies, I can see the yellow skies
See you again, I see you again
In my dreams, in my dreams
in my dreams, in my dreams
Morning light, I remember morning light
Outside my doors, I 'll see you no more
In my dreams, in my dreams
In my dreams, in my dreams
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you
Responsible, responsible, responsible, responsible
So black and white
It's become so black and white
So insecure, you're so insecure
That's what you are, That's what you are
That's what you are, That's what you are
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you.
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you.
Responsible, responsible, responsible, responsible
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you
Forever, Forever I'll be forever holding you
Responsible, responsible, responsible, responsible
07 The Rebels (03:22)
Seems like yesterday we were sixteen
We were the rebels of the rebel scene
We wore Doc Martens in the sun
Drinking vintage cider having fun
We were, drinking vintage cider having fun
It wasn't often, that we'd fight at all
It wasn't often
It wasn't often, that we'd fight at all
It wasn't often
We wore Doc Martens in the snow
Paint our toenails black and let our hair grow
What I am now is what I was then
I am not more acceptable than them
I am not more acceptable than them
It wasn't often, that we'd fight at all
It wasn't often
It wasn't often, that we'd fight at all
It wasn't often
It wasn't often, it wasn't often
It wasn't often, it wasn't often
It wasn't often, it wasn't often
It wasn't often, it wasn't often
Seems like yesterday we were sixteen
We were The Rebels of the Rebel Scene
08 I Just Shot John Lennon (02:43)
It was the fearful night of December 8th
He was returning home from the studio, late
He had perceptively known that it wouldn't be nice
Because in 1980, he paid the price
John Lennon died, John Lennon died, John Lennon died
John Lennon died, John Lennon died, John Lennon died
With a Smith & Wesson, 38
John Lennon's life was no longer a debate
He should have stayed at home
he should have never cared
And the man who took his life declared, he said:
"I Just Shot John Lennon!"
He said: "I Just Shot John Lennon!"
What a sad and sorry and sickening sight
It was a sad and sorry and sickening night
Oh a sad and sorry and sickening sight
It was a sad and sorry and sickening night
"I Just Shot John Lennon!"
He said, "I Just Shot John Lennon!"
What a sad and sorry and sickening sight
It was a sad and sorry and sickening night
Oh a sad and sorry and sickening sight
It was a sad and sorry and sickening night
09 Electric Blue (04:53)
Electric blue eyes, where did you come from
Electric blue eyes, who sent you
Electric blue eyes, always be near me
Electric blue eyes, I need you
Domine, Domine, Deus
Domine, Adiuva Me
Domine, Domine, Deus
Domine, Adiuva Me
Hey, eh, hey, eh
If you should go, You should know I love you
If you should go, You should know I'm here
Always be near me, guardian angel
Always be near me, there's no fear
Domine, Domine, Deus
Domine, Adiuva Me
Domine, Domine, Deus
Domine, Adiuva Me
Hey, eh, hey, eh
10 I'm Still Remembering (04:51)
I'm still remembering the day
I gave my life away
I'm still remembering the time
You said you'd be mine
Yesterday was cold and bare
Because you were not there
Yesterday was cold
My story has been told
I need your affection all the way
The world has changed or I've changed in a way
I try to remain
I'm trying not to go insane
I need your affection all the way
I'm still remembering my life
Before I became your wife
I'm still remembering the pain
And the mind games
Reverse psychology, never tainted me
I didn't sell my soul, I didn't sell my soul
I need your affection all the way
The world has changd or I've changed in a way
I try to remain
I'm trying not to go insane
I need your affection all the way
They say the cream will always
Rise to the top
They say that good people
Are always first to drop
What of Kurt Cobain
Will his presence still remain
Remember J.F.K.
Ever saintly in a way
Where are you now
Where are you now
Where are you now
I say, where are you now
I need your affection all the way
I need your affection all the way
I need your affection all the way
I need your affection all the way
12 Joe (03:23)
There was a time, I was so lonely (away)
Remember the time, It was a Friday (away)
You made me feel fine, We did it my way (away)
I sat on your knees, every Friday (away)
(We walked in fields of golden hay)
I still recall you
(We walked in fields of golden hay)
I see you in the summer
Joe, Joe
I sat on your chair by the fire. (away)
Transfixed in a stare taking me higher (away)
Precious years to remember (away)
Childhood fears I surrender (away)
(We walked in fields of golden hay)
I still recall you
(We walked in fields of golden hay)
I see you in the summer
Joe, Joe
13 Bosnia (05:38)
BOSNIA Lyrics
I would like to state my vision
Life was so unfair
We live in our secure surroundings
And people die out there
Bosnia, was so unkind
Sarejevo, change my mind
And we all call out in despair
All the love we need isn't there
And we all sing songs in our rooms
SARAJEVO erects another tomb
SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO!
Bosnia, was so unkind
SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO! SARAJEVO!
Bosnia, was so unkind
Sure, things would change
If we really wanted them to
No fear for children anymore
There are babies in their beds
Terror in their heads
for the love of life!
When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?
When do the saints go marching in?
Rummmpatitum, Rummmpatilum
Traboo, Traboo, Traboo
14 Cordell (03:40)
Though once you ruled my mind
I thought you'd always be there
And I'll always hold on to your face
But everything changes in time
And the answers are not always fair
And I hope you've gone to a better place
Cordell, time will tell
They say that you passed away
And I hope you've gone to a better place
Time will tell, time will tell
They say that you passed away
And I know that you've gone to a better place
Cordell, Cordell
Cordell, Cordell
Your lover and baby will cry
But your presence will always remain
Is this how it was meant to be
You meant something more to me
Than what many people will see
And to hell with the industry
Cordell, time will tell
They say that you passed away
And I hope you've gone to a better place
Time will tell, time will tell
We all will depart and decay
And we all will return to a better place
Cordell, Cordell
Cordell, Cordell
Nana, nana, nana, nana
Nana, nana, nana, nana
15 The Picture I View (02:28)
I haven't changed but my life has
People are strange when it's like us
I did something wrong to them
And I don't even know your name
No I don't even know your name
I swear that he's good for me
And I swear he looks after me
And I swear he looks out for me
And I swear that he's good, good, good
Laha, laha, laha the picture i view
Laha, laha, laha the picture i view
Laha, laha, laha the picture i view
Laha, laha, laha the picture i view
All my plans and promises
went tumbling down the hill
All my friends and promises
went tumbling down the hill
I haven't changed but my life has
People are strange when it's like us
I did something wrong to them
And I don't even know your name
No I don't even know your name
Don't even know your name
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Other reviews
By charles
"The best episode of the album is found in a track of rare beauty... 'War Child' immediately gets inside."
"This album as a whole is truly a good work, worthy of the band's fame, with a good mix of gritty tracks and slightly more seductive ones, without ever falling into banality."
