Review: Roses by The Cranberries

Roses marks the return of one of best bands to grace the rock scene, The Cranberries.  Their poignant sound, haunting and realistically harsh lyrics, and ethereal, provocative, unique vocals again see light in Roses.

With Dolores O'Riordan's solo albums during their hiatus, their sound is uniquely theirs and has not changed after all these years.  There aren't many bands who keep the same style and signature sounds, but The Cranberries do, at least not very much.  They don't hold back, but they do shamefully avoid war topics.  I would've loved to hear another "War Child" or "Bosnia", but we have to settle for social criticism of the new generations in "Tomorrow" and the oversexed in "Schizophrenic Playboy".  The overarching motif is love and the variety of complexities surrounding it, from sex to parting to death.   The result is a somber, dark, and very late 80s-early 90s album.  Cranberries fans must buy this.  The album comes out February 24 in the Republic of Ireland and February 27 and 28 in the rest of the world.