Spins: The Cranberries • Uncertain 35th Anniversary EP
The Cranberries
Uncertain 35th Anniversary EP
(Island/UMe)
Two years before rocketing into public consciousness with their first full-length album Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, Irish quartet the Cranberries released a short run of their now-coveted Uncertain EP. It was the quartet’s first release under their new name, having originally been known as the punny The Cranberry Saw Us. Arriving ahead of the EP’s 35th anniversary this coming October, the surviving band members offer this limited-edition vinyl reissue as a love letter to longtime fans and late singer/songwriter Dolores O’Riordan. Upon the initial release of Uncertain, the band were undeniably on the ascent but still relatively unknown outside of home territory. These four songs are a bit more rough-hewn than later fare but point the way to forthcoming dream-pop delights and international radio/MTV hits including re-recorded versions of early demo tracks “Dreams” and “Linger.”
Thumbprints of the Cranberries’ ‘80s alternative pop and post-punk influences are more present on Uncertain than on their later material produced by Stephen Street. The moody sound of Cure singles like “A Forest” echoes through the kinetic but forlorn “Pathetic Senses.” Mike Hogan’s accented bass and brother Noel’s chiming arpeggios during “Nothing Left at All” hint at the Smiths, another of Street’s famous charges. Traces of U2 and Joy Division find their way into the mix as well. “Them” brings the EP to a mesmerizing conclusion. The more benevolent of Pearse Gilmore’s production flourishes are heard here, with wind and water sound effects that leave the deconstructed arrangement sounding appropriately moorless and adrift. Noel Hogan’s slashing power chords echo as if arriving from across the waves, and Fergal Lawler’s snare drum cracks with far-off spaciousness like Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.”
Title cut “Uncertain” glides and drifts with the wash of Noel Hogan’s brushed watercolor chords. O’Riordan sings an evanescent and tremulous melody, backed by her own ghostly high notes. The full EP is evidence of the teenaged singer’s natural gift for melody and emotional delivery. O’Riordan’s lyric portrays sadness and confusion due to the unsteady devotion of a lover lacking in resolve. It doesn’t seem to be a great gap between this tale and the star-crossed portrait of “Linger.”
The Cranberries collectively put their best foot forward as upstarts, although Uncertain does encounter roadblocks often experienced by most any independent band with a limited budget in the early ‘90s. Under Gilmore’s production, Lawler’s kick drum lands with a plastic thump and his snare has the artificial snap and decay of digital processing on the nonetheless engaging lead track “Uncertain.” Gilmore’s other touches include the song’s hyperactive and distracting hand percussion. Noel Hogan’s naked acoustic guitar lines meander through “Nothing Left at All,” occasionally clashing with O’Riordan’s lilting melody. The figures parallel the song’s melancholy sentiment but sound bone dry among an otherwise spacious arrangement, as if recorded directly into the mixing desk.
Even so, such quibbles are generally due to technological limitations or youthful inexperience. The young band locks intuitively into evocative material that shows themselves to be full of soon-to-be-realized promise as players and writers. These four tunes are well chosen for sonic variety and personality. All of them likely enchanted the band’s most devoted followers and friends at Limerick clubs, as well as fans further away in Dublin. The initial release of Uncertain on the small Island Records imprint Xeric must have been a source of genuine excitement and optimism.
The reissued EP arrives on translucent cranberry-colored vinyl. (cranberries.com)
– Jeff Elbel
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