The Cranberries, No Need to Argue
Island, 1994: Dolores O'Riordan (vocals), Noel Hogan (guitar), Mike Hogan (bass) and Fergal Lawler (drums)
Notable songs:
After the debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993), The Cranberries released back-to-back great albums, and then they seemed to fade away. That later silence takes nothing away from this album which has sold over 17 million copies worldwide.
The songs on the album are very good, great lyrics throughout, especially "Daffodil Lament" and "Everything I Said," but "Zombie" and "Ode to My Family" are two great, powerful rock ballads, both with a message and both written by O'Riordan. Those two songs make the album.
If you haven't figured it out from the names of the band members, this was an Irish group that formed in 1990.
"Ode to My Family" is allegedly about family conflict over the choice of a rock career. While "Zombie" was inspired by the IRA bombing in 1993 in Warrington, Cheshire in which two children were killed. The song references the violence in Northern Ireland dating back to the Easter Uprising in 1916. The music video was especially weird and provocative.