No Need to Argue

The Cranberries（卡百利,一译小红莓）乐队，由主唱Dolores O''''''''Riordan，吉他手Neol Hogan，贝司手Mike Hogan和鼓手Fergal Lawler组成。后Smiths 的富有旋律但稍微有些刺耳的 indie-guitar-pop 加上一些更加欢快的节奏、再加上一些淡淡的凯尔特人的音乐风格，使 Cranberries 成为了90年代的早期的 Britpop 流派中最成功的一支乐队。乐队的歌手 Dolores O*Riordan 那具有力量和忧伤的双重性格的嗓音无疑是乐队最有特色的一个元素。但这支乐队在他们的初期在英国并没有多大的影响力。直到1993年乐队的民谣《 Linger 》在美国获得了巨大的成功后他们才在英国的歌坛获得了一席之地。

“No need to argue”（1994）乐队在第二张专辑里显然要比第一张专辑显得成熟和圆滑，为了避免在流行的曲调中显得过于苍白和无力，他们特意创作了专辑里唯一一首爱尔兰之歌Zombie，反战几乎成了所有爱尔兰乐队固有的传统，但除此以外，乎都是情歌，其实我们不妨把他们放在流行层面上看待，就不会理会什么概念和深刻，好听足以，但能做到这点，又能有几支乐队？Dolores的嗓音在这张专辑里表现的淋漓尽致，无论是Zombie里的高亢，还是在“Dreaming my dreams”里的婉转，真假嗓音的变换和独有的高音，让人陶醉不已

With their surprise success behind them, the Cranberries went ahead and essentially created a sequel to Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We with only tiny variations, with mixed results. The fact that the album is essentially a redo of previously established stylistic ground isn't apparent in just the production, handled again by Stephen Street, or the overall sound, or even that one particularly fine song is called "Dreaming My Dreams." Everybody wasn't a laugh riot, to be sure, but No Need To Argue starts to see O'Riordan take a more commanding and unfortunately much more self-conscious role that ended up not standing the band in good stead later. Lead single "Zombie" is the worst offender in this regard -- the heavy rock trudge isn't immediately suited for the band's strengths (notably, O'Riordan wrote this without Noel Hogan) -- while the subject matter -- the continuing Northern Ireland tensions -- ends up sounding trivialized. Opening cut "Ode to My Family" is actually one of the band's best, with a lovely string arrangement created by O'Riordan, but her overdubbed vocals start showing her distinct vocal tics becoming a bit more gimmicky at the expense of the performance. Where No Need succeeds best is when the Cranberries stick at what they know, resulting in a number of charmers like "Twenty One," the uilleann pipes-touched "Daffodil's Lament," which has an epic sweep that doesn't overbear like "Zombie," and the evocative "Disappointment."