Friday I’m In Love: Cranberries Covers
I really miss Dolores O’Riordan.
Two things:
- Back in the days of mix tapes and burned mix CDs, I had a fairly legendary run of covers compilations. I labeled each one “Keep It Under The Covers” and then attached “Vol.1, Vol.2, etc. etc. etc.” with each new edition. They were second only to my recurring “Year Of The Great Golden Llama” mixes (title stolen from Christopher Nilsson). I’ve always loved cover songs and I always will. I almost named this post “Cover Songs” but then I would’ve ended up posting a hundred songs and, let’s be honest, very few people read these posts anyway—and none of you would’ve scrolled through a hundred YouTube videos and Spotify links. Plus, I couldn’t burn a topic as big as cover songs on one post. I need flexibility for my content calendar!
- When Dolores O’Riordan died (almost exactly a year ago), it hit me harder than I expected. I spent a lot of time with the first two Cranberries records (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We and No Need To Argue). I imagined myself as a much moodier, much more artistic high schooler than I actually was… And putting the Cranberries on repeat on my boombox (or on a dubbed cassette in my off-brand Walkman with BassBoost!) helped me maintain the facade. Anyway, I suppose it’s a realization of my own mortality or a wave of nostalgia… but I spent a few weeks listening to the entire Cranberries catalog (even the later stuff that I didn’t know much about) after O’Riordan’s death. It was a sort of mourning, grieving for someone who meant more to me than I had realized.
Over the holidays, I tackled a big home improvement project: Turning our yellow guest room into a grey home office. There were trips to IKEA, only a few domestic disputes, and lots of painting (which means lots of prepping to paint and a little bit of actual painting). I set up a bluetooth speaker and let Spotify go to work. Eventually, it landed on Japanese Breakfast—a band that likely deserves a FIIL post all of its own—and their cover of the Cranberries’ Dreams. It’s great. I love it. And you can watch them perform it last year at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Please do.
Then, this morning, Hannah Georgas released a cover of No Need To Argue. It’s a more daring approach than Japanese Breakfast’s straightforward take on Dreams… but I love it just as much. That it features Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig from Lucius only makes me swoon harder. It’s the last track from the album of the same name and it’s always been one of my favorite Cranberries songs. It’s a breakup song that doesn’t bother with big ideas or big words, opting instead for the exhaustion that comes when you know something is dead and you no longer have the energy to attempt a resurrection. It deserves three minutes and thirteen seconds of your time. Especially on a Friday.
BONUS SECTION
While we’re talking about covers, I should mention that this series of posts now has a theme song. I texted my friend, Phoebe Bridgers, and asked if she’d cover the Cure track from which these inspired posts borrow their title… And she obliged! Ah, PB, you really shouldn’t have!*
*No part of this paragraph is factual. I do not know Phoebe Bridgers. She is not my friend. I did not text her. Her cover of this song is purely coincidental, but none of that stops me from adopting it as the official FIIL Soundtrack.
Every Friday I share something I love. Usually, it’s a new infatuation. Occasionally, it’s something else. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the theme song, Phoebe Bridgers!
