Search - Cranberries :: Everybody Else is Doing It So Why Can't We? (The Complete Sessions 1991-1993)

Jeanette P. (Jennie77) from SAINT PAUL, MN
Reviewed on 3/6/2007...

There is no cd here for the cd i have, this cd i have only has songs 1-12 on this list.

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Val M. (jaglvr) from ELIZABETHTOWN, PA
Reviewed on 8/13/2006...

don't think this is the same cd though....mine only lists 12 tracks

Everybody else is doing it, but few do it better

Tom Benton | North Springfield, VT USA | 01/24/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As in any other vehicle of expression, the woman in modern pop music was and is pressured to slide into a specific personae: the Neurotic Bad Girl (Amy Winehouse), the Glamorous Sextress (Lady Ga-Ga), the Doe-Eyed Innocent Totally Into Self-Discovery (Britney Spears, if she still counts). The Dream Girl, She of Ethereal Voice and Airy Lyric, has been around at least since Joan Baez and definitely since record producers and talent seekers recognized Her as an image that sells. Fortunately for those men--and women--who tend to forget there's more to life than this, a performer appears, rarely, who fills the personae and then grows out of it, shatters it, even, the performer who in doing so not only sells but compels. Case in point: the Cranberries, fronted by honey-voxed Irish lass Dolores O'Riordan. Not even O'Riordan escaped the pressure once she went from Performer to Pop Star, but for one album at least O'Riordan and her band put on the Dream Girl suit and left it in pieces.



"Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" is an album for dark corners on rainy spring days. It's not quite pop, the Cranberries' music, which harkens back to old country folk and flirts with techno. "Sunday" isn't exactly a whispy daydream, and "Pretty" is still a few steps from noir fantasy. One thing it is is energetic: saccharine nonetheless, maybe, but if so it's saccharinity with a pulse. The bass vibrates like few bass lines I've noticed. The drums thump and crackle and smash, really smash, like waves on the Irish shore ("I Still Do"). The guitar reverbs, undulates, echoes, and pierces, just like the emotions O'Riordan's trying to convey. O'Riordan's voice itself goes up and down, dreamy and mad, hurt and in love. She's more than a pop Dream Girl--she's a dream woman because she's a real woman, a person with vivid dreams, excruciating feelings, and exciting thoughts. Those that get that will get the most from this album, a dream well worth falling into. Because the best dream of all is often the real thing."

An exceptionally good debut!

Daniel A. Jakubik | Chicago, IL USA | 08/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I remember early 1994 when I first heard the song "Linger". I was impressed by the depth of feeling in a song from a very young (early 20's) Irish rock group. "Dreams" as the joyful song of the album, is their other greatest early song. The album comes across as typically Irish: melancholy and somber. I was impressed by the authentic and traditional Irish sound on the album. Lead singer Dolores O' Riordin has an exceptionally good singing voice. This re-release includes addition material that didn't make it onto the final cut of the album."