Roses –by The Cranberries (Album Review)

It's been too long since I put new material on the blog, so I'll take a few minutes to review the latest album by The Cranberries, a band I enjoyed in my youth.  I started listening to them with their second album, No Need to Argue (which remains their best album, in my opinion), and I kept listening straight until their "last" album in the early 2000's.

A few weeks ago, I was perusing music on Amazon.com, just to see what was out there after many years of not buying much new, and lo and behold the Cranberries put out a new album in 2012, their first in over a decade.  Well, I couldn't let that pass without a listen, so I bought the digital MP3 version and had at it.

"Roses" is a good warm-up comeback album, something reminiscent of their earliest material, and a potential stepping-stone toward future hits.

This album has a lot of songs I'd classify as okay, but only a couple that stand out to me.  "Conduct," the first song on the album, is my personal favorite of the collection, while "Waiting in Walthamstow" is a haunting melody which seems eerily familiar (though I can't tell what it reminds me of).  "Tomorrow" is reminiscent of one of their earliest hits, "Dreams," and the others should satisfy those familiar with the Cranberries song stylings.

So, how does this album compare to their earlier works?  I'd say it is their best overall album since No Need to Argue, but it lacks a major hit.  As I said, there are a few songs that I really like, but nothing really jumps out at me as a single.  "Show Me" had real potential, and listening to the first forty-five seconds for the first time I was expecting it to be that stand-out song, but the chorus just fell short.  It seemed to be building up to something that could have been a real head-banger, but it didn't.

I'd put this as a solid 3-star album; definitely worth buying for Cranberries fans.