New Wax Wednesday

What’s in your heh-ed, in your heh-ehh-ehh-ed? If that deliberately enunciated lyrical refrain instantly brings to mind a certain chilling but ultimately cathartic song by Irish alt-rockers The Cranberries — “Zombie” — then you’ll be eternally pleased to learn that a trio of 30th anniversary vinyl editions of the album that song is from, October 1994’s No Need to Argue, will be released in spurts via Island/UMe on both June 27, 2025, and August 15, 2025.

To be more specific, The Cranberries are celebrating this pearl anniversary with a limited-edition deluxe set of No Need to Argue that’s available for pre-order right now, right here, and it will be released in just two days’ time on June 27, 2025, with an SRP of $79.98. Additionally, a 2LP Deluxe Edition and 1LP option — along with, for those of you also digitally inclined and/or of a fully completist mindset, a 2CD Deluxe Edition, 1CD, and Digital Deluxe editions (also all via Island/UMe) — will be made available for pre-order this Friday, June 27, 2025, and then they will be released on August 15, 2025. Pre-order links for those particular editions (with SRPs to come) will be added here once they go live, so bookmark this page/post and make sure you come back at that time to do so! (I also hope to have more information about where the vinyl was pressed, what the source material was, and who cut the vinyl by then as well.)

The special limited-edition 3LP vinyl package includes a previous unreleased demo of “Zombie,” live recordings from Woodstock ’94 and MTV Unplugged, the latter of which originally aired April 18, 1995. Also included are two remixes by Scottish producer and Chvrches bandmember Iain Cook — a dancefloor-ready take on “Zombie,” and a much dreamier update of “Ode to My Family.”

Originally released on October 3, 1994, via Island, No Need to Argue was seen as the commercial zenith for The Cranberries — currently certified at 17 million copies sold worldwide, and counting! — following the initial breakthrough of their debut LP, March 1993’s (also on Island). That first album’s two big hits, the ethereal one-two punch of “Dreams” and “Linger,” set the table for how major Argue tracks like the aforementioned “Zombie,” the heartfelt “Ode to My Family,” the twist-in-the-wind thrust of “Ridiculous Thoughts,” and the everlasting lament of “I Can’t Be With You,” among others, took this four-piece Irish band into the international stratosphere.

I had the distinct honor of interviewing Cranberries vocalist and chief songwriter Dolores O’Riordan by phone on March 28, 2017, in order to discuss the band’s then-new LP on BMG, Something Else, which featured a number of new and old songs they had recorded with the Irish Chamber Orchestra at The University of Limerick in Ireland. O’Riordan and I, of course, also talked about Argue and Everybody Else as well. (Sadly, she passed away a mere 10 months later, at the relatively young age of 46, in London on January 15, 2018.)

Before I share some salient Argue-centric points from that conversation below, let’s take a few moments to ingest the relentless majesty of “Zombie” together, via its official YouTube/Vevo clip.

As O’Riordan and I were specifically discussing this song, I cited what I called the “Dolores growl” whenever she sang the word “zombie” and how I felt there was an added weight to the vowel sound she was getting there. “Yes,” she instantly agreed — then added, “I think when it’s too clean — or when people go in and try to clean up the breath to make it sound seamless — it takes away from the reality. And in reality, nobody’s perfect. We all have to take a breath every now and again. Sometimes you might have a little nuance in your vocal where you go, ‘Ooh, what was that?’ It was just natural, and that’s what keeps the thing alive, you know?”

She continued, “That’s also why I always liked Bob Marley. There’s always something a bit raw about Bob Marley, and you have to keep it like that to keep it real — not too polished, too perfect, or too produced. I also think a lot about David Bowie’s albums, where sometimes you can hear the pops and you can hear him breathing, just to keep it nice and fresh and not trying to be technically perfect. For me, it’s more of a case of ‘keep it natural, keep it real,’ and try to give a good delivery.” (Mission very much accomplished with “Zombie,” methinks.)

I then wondered if she felt that it was either sad or ironic — or whatever the right word there would be — that “Zombie” seemed to be just as relevant in the here and now as when she first wrote the song in 1994. “It’s scary to think about what people blindly follow anymore. It’s probably a weird coincidence, but it’s probably even more relevant now,” O’Riordan replied — and that was in 2017 when she said that, mind you. “There’s a lot more paranoia now about terrorism in the world,” she pointed out. “Going through things like security in airports has turned into quite the ordeal. Before that, everything was more laid back.”

Then she applied it to some past experiences she had back in her native homeland. “We had our own problems in Ireland, but they were in Ireland; they didn’t come to America at that stage,” O’Riordan detailed. “Before that, life was more free and easygoing. I tell my kids about the times when I was a teenager, where I remember the pilots on the planes telling me to come up and talk to them in the cockpit, and I’d go up there, sit down, and be chatting away. It was all so laid-back and pure — but not anymore. It’s a different kettle of fish now.”

I also spoke with Cranberries drummer Fergal Lawler on Zoom on June 21, 2022, about The Cranberries’ legacy and about “Zombie” in particular, and he picked up on O’Riordan’s thread. “A lot of people — even younger people, who’ve heard ‘Zombie’ for the first time — say that it is relevant to them,” he confirmed with me. “And especially now with what’s happening in Ukraine and everything, it’s completely relevant. It’s an anti-war song. It’s a song about how some humans can treat other humans like they’re not worth anything, you know? And that’s ridiculous in this day and age. We’re supposed to be evolved human beings. How can you behave like that?”

Will “Zombie” still have an impact, 50 years from now? (You just knew I had to ask him that one.) “Yes — and that’s a good thing, I think,” Lawler replied.

Lawler also told me that having The Cranberries’ music on vinyl — and with all the songs in the right order — was always at the forefront of their minds. “Sequencing was always important to us,” he explained. “When we were doing those Cranberries records, it was always, ‘How should the tracks line up?’ Some songs you’d know where they go, straightaway. And then Stephen [Street, their longtime producer/engineer] was always very adamant about the first single should be the second song on the record. Lead-in with something, and then boom — here’s the single, you know? But we’d always juggle things around and then listen back and go, ‘Maybe switch this one and that one, because it should have a flow up and down on Side 1 and Side 2.’ Even though it was the CD era, we were still thinking about Side 1 and Side 2.”

The Cranberries’ PR team shared an official press release about the No Need to Argue vinyl editions that includes a number of additional direct quotes from Lawler and O’Riordan (not mine) as well as other bandmembers, and I’m going to share some of them here for further context (with my notes, as always, sprinkled in where needed).

In regard to Argue being the band’s second album, Lawler insisted in that press statement that, quote, “There was no ‘difficult second album syndrome.’ Dolores didn’t have any problems writing on the road, and in fact was bursting with ideas. Often when a song was completed, it’d go straight into the live set, so audiences got to hear a lot of the No Need to Argue songs way before they were recorded. I remember playing ‘Zombie,’ for instance, early in 1993 on our first European tour with Hothouse Flowers. By the time the chorus came around for the second time, you could feel the reaction in the room. People just loved it from the get-go.”

Lawler expressed his admiration for how the band’s 1995 MTV Unplugged performance — exclusive to the third LP in the 3LP set, vinylistically speaking — came across. “It was an honour to do MTV Unplugged, and I’m really proud that our songs didn’t need all the bells and whistles you get in the studio to sound good,” Lawler confirmed. “They worked just as well, stripped down and played acoustically, albeit with the help of the brilliant Electra Strings.”

Of the “Zombie” (original 45 sleeve shown above) and “Ode to My Family” remixes done by Iain Cook that are on LP2, Lawler observed, “Iain was very nervous about doing ‘Zombie’ because of its legacy. I told him not to worry about what other people think, and just go for it. Originally, he went down the traditional Irish music route, but then decided to do something dance-ier, which has worked out brilliantly.”

As for how Cook reinterpreted “Ode to My Family,” Lawler noted that, “There’s a groove on the original when the chorus comes in, which he leant into. You’ll be nodding your head and tapping your feet for sure! Iain also added strings so, again, it turned out great.”

Described by the band’s above-noted producer/engineer Stephen Street in the press statement as “a beautiful collection of people working together with the right intentions,” the press release further posits that “The Cranberries’ vigor and familial chemistry exudes throughout the album” (and I would tend to agree). “Call it youthful arrogance, but we knew the songs we’d written were good and couldn’t wait to get them down,” added guitarist Noel Hogan. “Stephen had bought a camcorder that we spent a lot of time messing around with in The Manor [the recording studio in a manor house in the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England, where much of the album was recorded], and you can see in the videos how happy and chilled everyone was. The mood in the camp was really, really good and it never felt like work.”

O’Riordan was also quoted in the press statement, assessing the band’s legacy. “I really think that what makes people tune into The Cranberries is the honesty of the music,” she said. “Some fans say, ‘Aren’t you embarrassed singing about such things?’ and I say, ‘That’s what makes me what I am.’ I’m not going to change for anyone.’”

That she never did.

And we didn’t give a damn / ’Cause we were raised / To see life as fun / And take it if we can. . .

THE CRANBERRIES
NO NEED TO ARGUE – 30TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION
3LP (Island/UMe)

LP1, Side A
1. Ode To My Family
2. I Can’t Be With You
3. Twenty One
4. Zombie
5. Empty

LP1, Side B
1. Everything I Said
2. The Icicle Melts
3. Disappointment
4. Ridiculous Thoughts
5. Dreaming My Dreams

LP2, Side C
1. Yeats’ Grave
2. Daffodil Lament
3. No Need To Argue
4. Ode To My Family (Iain Cook Remix)
5. Zombie (Iain Cook Remix)

LP2, Side D
1. Zombie (Demo)
2. I Can’t Be With You (Live From Woodstock ’94)
3. Ridiculous Thoughts (Live From Woodstock ’94)
4. Daffodil Lament (Live From Woodstock ’94)

LP3, Side E – MTV Unplugged
1. Intro / Dreaming My Dreams
2. Ode To My Family
3. Linger
4. Free To Decide

LP3, Side F – MTV Unplugged (ctd.)
1. I’m Still Remembering
2. Empty
3. Zombie
4. Yesterday’s Gone
5. No Need To Argue

THE CRANBERRIES
NO NEED TO ARGUE – 30TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION
2LP (Island/UMe)

LP1, Side A
1. Ode To My Family
2. I Can’t Be With You
3. Twenty One
4. Zombie
5. Empty

LP1, Side B
1. Everything I Said
2. The Icicle Melts
3. Disappointment
4. Ridiculous Thoughts
5. Dreaming My Dreams

LP2, Side C
1. Yeats’ Grave
2. Lament
3. No Need To Argue
4. Ode To My Family (Iain Cook Remix)
5. Zombie (Iain Cook Remix)

LP2, Side D
1. Zombie (Demo)
2. I Can’t Be With You (Live From Woodstock ’94)
3. Ridiculous Thoughts (Live From Woodstock ’94)
4. Daffodil Lament (Live From Woodstock ’94)

THE CRANBERRIES
NO NEED TO ARGUE – 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
1LP (Island/UMe)

Side A
1. Ode To My Family
2. I Can’t Be With You
3. Twenty One
4. Zombie
5. Empty
6. Everything I Said
7. The Icicle Melts

Side B
1. Disappointment
2. Ridiculous Thoughts
3. Dreaming My Dreams
4. Yeats’ Grave
5. Daffodil Lament
6. No Need To Argue