Published on Aug 10, 1999
The album title refers to the band’s attitude when they came
together again (after having babies, etc.) to write another album,
but Cranberries fans don’t need to worry too much about change of
sound (or get excited about it, either). Their last album
To The Faithful Departed is more of a departure than
Bury The Hatchet proves to be. Hey, it’s a Cranberries
album; it’s got some terrific singles, it refuses to get old and
Deloris O’Riordan fronts with just as much confidence and vocal
originality.
What they’re lacking this time around is ambition, the kind that
made tracks like “Linger” and “Dreams”. The lyrics, previously a
Cranberries strong point, tend to lean towards repetition and rigid
structuring, which takes away a lot of power from songs like “Fee
Fi Fo” (nightmarish imagery, but not at the level of Aerosmith’s
“Janie’s Got a Gun”, which also deals with sexual abuse). One song,
“Delilah”, is actually written around a catchy rhyme scheme. It’s
hooky but not much else.
Music-wise, the melodies are strong and don’t dissappoint such
as another inimitable Cranberries ballad “Shattered”, or the
Celtic-influenced “Dying In The Sun”. With arrangements there are
interesting forays here and there, such as the synthesized trumpet
in “You And Me” or the solid-rock mess of guitars in “Promises”,
but overall the album hardly deviates from a flat, mono-track
production that compromises personality for the sake of
cohesion.
And unlike previous albums the fillers are almost astonishing.
“Sorry Son” is a bizarre excuse for a Cranberries song with
nonsensical lyrics and an off-hand vocal by O’Riordan. “What’s On
My Mind” is a superficial bit of songwriting by the same hand that
wrote “When You’re Gone”, a superior love ditty availble on
To The Faithful Departed.
At the end of the day, my complaint with
Bury The Hatchet is that it’s not a masterpiece; I am, just
personally, getting more and more impatient with my time and money
these days. For more tolerant fans,
Bury The Hatchet may offer some good concert material, but
for those of us stuck in concert-less, economic sovereignity-less
IMF Asia, the Cranberries (just this time) refuses to cut it.