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'No Baggage' for Dolores O'Riordan
DOLORES O'Riordan released her second solo album over the weekend, and while the early reaction to it has been decidedly mixed, when the former Cranberries star spoke to the Limerick Chronicle earlier in the summer to promote it, she was in upbeat, confident form.
Advance album promo/interviews are a funny thing, as much has happened in the months since we spoke to the Ballybricken woman, including her cancelling her American tour and hinting at a Cranberries reunion, as she did when she spoke to us.
At that point however, such things were a way off and O'Riordan was keen to discuss the new album No Baggage, a follow-up to her debut Are You Listening, which suffered when her record company Sanctuary collapsed shortly after its release.
"I think it is a lot more positive than my first record," explained Dolores, "creatively speaking the rhythm of it is more dynamic."
"There is a song called Apple of My Eye which is a really nice love song. I had it on my first album but I re-recorded it because my first album ended up becoming shelved - my record company collapsed so I kind of lost my first album, so I re-recorded that."
Asked to describe some of the tracks on the albums, she rattles off a few examples.
"There is a track called Switch Off The Moment which is about insomnia and stress and all of these things that people have to deal with," explained Dolores.
"There is a song called Skeleton which is kind of about becoming a bit more comfortable with your own skin as you get older and there is one track that is very kind of 'world music' sounding, Throw Your Arms Around Me.
Some of (the songs) were written on the road - Switch Off.. was written on the road because it is really hard to keep up with all the time zones. That was during the tour for the first album - you are moving so much and there is so much going on between doing gigs and packing and moving, it gets to the point where it is really hard to sleep.
"I remember being in Chile and waking up in the lobby in my jim-jams," she added, with a laugh.
Clearly sounding very relaxed, Dolores credited her settled family life - she is married to former Duran Duran tour manager Don Burton and stepmother to his 17-year old son and mother to their three children - with keeping her grounded. The family divide their time between Dublin and the countryside of Ontario.
"Yes, I am very relaxed really and I think it was essential to step out of the equation of being in the Cranberries and take my four years in the forest being a full time mom and getting away from it all," she said.
"I switched off totally and lost touch with the planet and really becoming this kind of earthy person, and found the person I used to be before all of that," she adds.
"These are very stressful times that we live in, but at the end of the day a lot of these songs are about healing. You can't change the equation, the planet is the way it is, you might as well enjoy those great moments."
No Baggage is available now in all good record stores.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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