We, here at Goldenplec, like to think we are a benevolent bunch. When an album comes along that we love, we will shout about it from the rooftops. But when there is something that we aren’t so enamoured with, we express our criticisms (as is our job) fairly and try not to linger on the negative.
We know that most albums that we review are debuts by hard-working, young, Irish bands. For many of these bands, it will be the sole release of their musical career. We respect this and, as such, tend to accentuate the positive while, as mentioned above, not lingering on the negative. This holding back can occasionally make the reviewer feel frustrated or impotent, but that’s a better feeling than knowing you’re stamping on someone’s dreams.
When you get an album by a band who has sold millions of albums worldwide, there are no such reservations. They’ve already achieved ‘the dream’ and, more than likely, they won’t read the review. It’s an opportunity to unleash and say what we really think.
Therefore, with sense of twisted pleasure, I can tell you that ‘Roses’ by The Cranberries is not a good album. It doesn’t even approach good. At almost no point does the album rise above mediocrity.
Opener Conduct starts off the album in an inoffensive manner. The refrain of “When we get along, we’re really strong” is pretty atrocious lyrically but the tune is sufficiently harmless that it doesn’t bother me… for now.
The problem is that it never changes over the course of the next ten tracks. Each song is the same: a nice little ditty of a tune with inane lyrics over the top. The “I’ll wait for you forever” of Fire & Soul and “It’s raining in my heart/every time we are apart/and the sun won’t shine today/so I have to walk away” from Raining in my Heart are unique lyrics, but only because any other songwriter would have dismissed such frivolity as juvenile.
So frustrating does continued listening to this album become, that it feels like a physical exertion to go on. It took my five attempts before I could actually force myself to listen to the album all the way through. I sincerely didn’t feel I had the energy on the first four attempts.
Schizophrenic Playboys adds a bit of tempo (but little else) to proceedings but the next song, Waiting in Walthamstow, while probably the high point of the album, has the pace of a funeral march. But, as for real impact, these songs are again lacking.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the album is that, once it’s finished, you instantly forget what you disliked about it. In fact, forget almost every aspect of the album as soon as the music stops. A feeling of nothingness is the only one that lasts. I would go on but, I feel that if I do, you would feel the fatigue that I did listening to the album.
If you like The Cranberries, go back and listen to ‘Everybody Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?’. There is nothing new to ‘Roses’ at all. The only pleasurable thing I found about this album is that I didn’t have to come up with anything positive to say.