Cranberries single marks O'Riordan's death anniversary

LONDON • Irish band The Cranberries released the first song of its final album on Tuesday, exactly one year after lead singer Dolores O'Riordan was found drowned in a London hotel bathtub.

The band dropped the new track ahead of the April release of their eighth and last album In the End, after which the rock group - best known for 1990s hits including Zombie, Linger and Dreams - will split after three decades together.

Band members Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler finished the 11-song album using demo vocals O'Riordan completed in December 2017, they said on Instagram.

"We remembered how Dolores had been so energised by the prospect of making this record and getting back out on the road to play the songs live, and realised that the most meaningful thing to do was to finish the album we had started with her," the group said. "It was a very emotional process... Knowing that we would never get to play these songs live made it even more difficult." But "we felt that this is what she would want".

The lead single has an unmistakable Cranberries vibe, a sorrowful but moving track that features O'Riordan repeating the eerily prescient lyric "It's all over now".

The group are releasing the music with approval from the family of O'Riordan, who died aged 46. A London coroner ruled that she had died from accidental drowning due to intoxication and found no evidence of injuries or self harm.

"I can't think of a more fitting way to commemorate the first anniversary of Dolores' passing and to celebrate her life than to announce to the world the release of her final album with the band," the singer's mother Eileen O'Riordan said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 17, 2019, with the headline Cranberries single marks O'Riordan's death anniversary. Subscribe