Are You Listening - Dolores O'Riordan

I once bought a Cranberries album which only had a photocopied front cover for £4.99. Not a particularly interesting anecdote I will admit, but one which proves just how the musical climate has changed. Nowadays you'd just hop online and download it for free wouldn't you?

Anyway, that has little to do with the review itself so I'll crack on. Perhaps the one thing which made the Cranberries stand out was O'Riordan's voice and I'm happy to report that its still in fine fettle.

And indeed if you were/are a fan of the Cranberries, you'll certainly find things to enjoy on this collection. Single Ordinary Day (sadly not the Duran Duran song) was a reasonable one, if lacking a little spark, whilst Apple Of My Eye has that epic sweep that the very best Cranberries songs lived on.

It's not all a bunch of Cranberries-esque retreads though. In The Garden is perhaps the most out and out "pop" moment (in a distinctly pop-rock vein) on the album and indeed it wouldn't take a leap of a million miles to imagine The Corrs taking it, sprucing it up a little and selling a million copies of it. Loser is another example, although you're probably heading more into Busted/McFly territory there.

At it's heart this album is not a complicated one. It's one where, for the most part, those guitars are cranked up loud and O'Riordan's voice attempts to do the rest. It's interesting, especially for old Cranberries fans (and as they sold somewhere around 40 million albums there's more than a few of them about), but never really quite manages to totally draw you in.

And if even if you hate it, you're sure to glean entertainment from some of the, unintentionally no doubt, hilarious lyrics (for example, "the moral of the adventure is this, if you take advantage of me you're taking the piss"). Indeed, some things never change.