MTV Unplugged by The Cranberries

The Cranberries
MTV Unplugged
Island Records/UMe

When I think back to the era of MTV Unplugged, my mind automatically travels back to the moment Kurt Cobain sat surrounded by flowers, grasping his acoustic guitar under the stage lights. He closed his eyes and belted out one of the most iconic renditions of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World.”

MTV Unplugged provided a unique view of bands who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to strip down and reimagine their work—everyone from LL Cool J and Oasis to Kiss, Hole and more, along with a laundry list of 1990s rock and R&B artists. Yet, one performance that has long been overdue for the limelight is the soft-spoken set by The Cranberries. Finally, we get the release we need: the complete version of their 1995 Unplugged performance. These audio delights were previously only obtainable on the limited 3LP 30th-anniversary edition of No Need to Argue, which is already becoming difficult to find.

Dolores O’Riordan’s voice was always a force of nature, but in this acoustic setting, the vulnerability is breathtaking. Stripped of ’90s distortion, songs like “Linger” and “Zombie” become haunting, melodic masterpieces. Filmed on Valentine’s Day in 1995 and broadcast later that year on April 18, the session features the lush accompaniment of the Electra Strings. They add a beautiful melancholy to “Ode to My Family” and “I’m Still Remembering,” one of two then-unreleased songs (the other being “Free to Decide”—both of which appeared the following year on To the Faithful Departed). These songs are fantastic charged and amplified as they are stripped down.

This session captures a band at the height of their influence, proving they didn’t need a wall of amplifiers to command a room. It is a document of a voice we lost too soon, finally given the high-definition treatment it deserves. It is poignant that it takes an album like this to rekindle the exceptional beauty of O’Riordan’s Irish-toned voice—now a relic of the 1990s that seems to drift farther away every day. Like an old photograph, MTV Unplugged allows us to hold on to the warm memories of the time. Let the sunlight rays come through the windows and let this album take you to a special place.