The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 03.10.1994
"Unhappiness Where's When I Was Young, And we didn't give a damn, 'Cause we were raised, to see life as fun and take it if we can"
A sense of freedom and youthful spirit swept over Dolores O'Riordan in the song that opens "The Cranberries"' second album, "No Need To Argue", released 32 years ago today, on October 3, 1994.
And indeed, there is no arguing with what this album did once it entered the world.
Only a year and a half earlier, "The Cranberries" had released their debut album. The band, made up of Dolores O'Riordan, Fergal Lawler and brothers Mike and Noel Hogan, initially made little impact. Even the dreamy and beautiful single "Linger", carried by Dolores O'Riordan's angelic voice, did not immediately change the picture. At that stage, hardly anyone knew who "The Cranberries" were.
"The Cranberries" were formed in the Irish city of Limerick by brothers Mike and Noel Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler, whom the brothers had met in the mid-1980s. The three bonded over a shared love of British indie music.
In mid-1989, Niall Quinn, a musician from "The Hitchers", joined them, and together they formed the first basic version of the group under the name "The Cranberry Saw Us".
After the demo and EP failed to move the band forward, Quinn left and returned to his previous group. The remaining trio kept developing music and instrumental song ideas while searching for a female singer to take his place.
Quinn, who remained on good terms with the band despite leaving, recommended a singer he thought might suit them. It was Dolores O'Riordan, who arrived for an audition in 1990 with a broken Casio keyboard under her arm and liked what the trio had to offer.
Noel Hogan gave the 18-year-old Dolores O'Riordan a demo tape containing an indie-jangle guitar piece. She took it home and came back with lyrics and a melody for what would become an early, rough version of "Linger".
"One listen to Dolores singing and we were captivated by her and by the magic of her voice. Who would have believed that such a huge, bell-like voice could come from such a young, tiny girl," Mike Hogan said at the time, and Dolores became the fourth member.
Noel, who had created many musical pieces before Dolores arrived, was now ready to work closely with her, with her lyrics and melodies completing his musical ideas. But the road ahead was still long and full of obstacles.
Still using their original name, the band released a three-track EP through Xeric Records. Pearse Gilmore, owner of Xeric Studios, became the band's manager.
Noel Hogan was determined to get the band out of pubs and underground clubs and sent another demo to London. In April 1991, the group shortened its name to "The Cranberries".
Even before work on the debut album was completed, the band fired Pearse Gilmore after their relationship with him created tension within the group. Geoff Travis took over as manager, and the band returned to recording with producer Stephen Street, who had previously worked with "The Smiths".
After the release of their debut album, "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?", backed by the singles "Dreams" and "Linger", and despite an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall alongside "Mercury Rev" and "The House of Love", success was slow to arrive.
It was only after they went on tour opening for one of the hottest British names of the period, "Suede", that things began to move. MTV started airing the videos frequently, and at one point the order of the shows was effectively reversed, with "The Cranberries" becoming the bigger attraction.
The band struck while the iron was hot with an extensive US tour, and "Linger" became their first major American hit, reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was also reissued in the UK and reached number 14 on the singles chart.
"The Cranberries" were now ready to enter the studio and work on their second album, "No Need To Argue". On some songs, the dreamy band of mournful ballads disappeared and was replaced by a rougher rock sound, with wailing guitars and drums hitting with full force. The clearest example is "Zombie", written in response to the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington that killed two children, and transformed into a cry against the cycle of violence in the Northern Ireland conflict.
Stephen Street continued producing "The Cranberries" on their second album, but it was increasingly clear that Dolores O'Riordan was taking on a larger share of the writing. She wrote the lyrics to every song on the album and was also a major force in the compositions, gradually shifting the creative balance between her and Noel Hogan.
Four singles were released from "No Need To Argue": "Zombie", "Ode To My Family", "I Can't Be With You" and "Ridiculous Thoughts". The album itself became an enormous international success, reaching number 2 in the UK and number 6 in the US, while topping the charts in numerous other countries.
The album cover shows the band members sitting on the same sofa that had also appeared on the cover of their debut. Photographer Andy Earl returned to work with the band, and the sofa was brought into a Dublin studio where the white setting was created for the shoot. This time, the band chose to wear suits, inspired by a photograph of "Blur" they had seen around the same period.
In 2025, an expanded 30th-anniversary edition of "No Need To Argue" was released alongside a new remaster of the original album. More than three decades after its release, the album remains the moment when "The Cranberries" moved from promising success to a global phenomenon, while "Zombie" became one of the defining songs of 1990s alternative rock.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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