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Mar 19, 2019 By Christopher Roberts The Cranberries

Dolores O’Riordan, frontwoman for 1990s Irish alt-rock band The Cranberries, unexpectedly died in London on January 15, 2018. The band were working on a new album at the time of her passing and that album, the fittingly titled In the End, is due out April 26 via BMG. Now they have shared another song from it, “Wake Me When It’s Over.” Listen below.

The band’s Noel Hogan had this to say about the song in a press release: “This was a song Dolores had been working on for a little while. It’s a fun song to play and it’s bright and quite uplifting. It’s very much a classic Dolores song with a soft verse and a massive chorus.”

Previously, on the one-year anniversary of O’Riordan’s death, the band shared the album’s first single, “All Over Now.” They later shared an animated video for the song.

Alongside O’Riordan, The Cranberries’ line-up also included Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan, and Fergal Lawler. Work on the album began in May 2017 and by that winter Noel and Dolores had written and demoed 11 songs.

“Dolores was so energized by the prospect of making this record and to getting back out on the road to play the songs live,” says Noel Hogan in a press release.

After O’Riordan’s passing the band took stock of the demos and, with the blessing of her family, set out to finish the album with longtime producer Stephen Street. “We knew this had to be one of the, if not the, best Cranberries album that we could possibly do,” says Noel. “The worry was that we would destroy the legacy of the band by making an album that wasn’t up to standard. Once we had gone through all the demos that Dolores and I had worked on and decided that we had such a strong album we knew it would be the right thing and the best way that we could honor Dolores.”

“It was a bittersweet time,” Noel adds. “The joy of recording new tracks is always exciting and one of the best parts of being in a band. At the end of every day when we’d laid down our parts there was a sense of sadness, knowing that Dolores wouldn’t be in that evening to work on that day’s track.”

Eileen O’Riordan, Dolores O’Riordan’s mother, also had this to say in the press release: “I miss her awfully, specially today, as does the entire family. That said I can’t think of a more fitting way to commemorate the first anniversary of her passing and to celebrate her life than to announce to the world the release of her final album with the band. She was very excited about this new album and was really looking forward to its release. I have no doubt that she is happy now and would be delighted with today’s announcement.”

Last year the band released a reissue of their 1993 debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, which they also worked on with O’Riordan before her death.

The Cranberries formed in 1989 (originally as The Cranberry Saw Us), with O’Riordan joining brothers Noel Hogan (guitar) and Mike Hogan (bass) and drummer Fergal Lawler a year later. It was a rough version of her song “Linger” that helped earn her a place in the band. A three-song demo featuring early versions of future hits “Linger” and “Dreams” earned them a record deal with Island after a label bidding war and Rough Trade head Geoff Travis as their new manager. Their 1993 debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, which was produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur), wasn’t an instant hit. But a tour supporting Britpop mainstays Suede earned them further attention and soon MTV was playing the videos for “Linger” and “Dreams,” which led to the album eventually reaching #1 on the U.K. album charts and it selling over five million copies in America.

1994 sophomore album, No Need to Argue, was an even bigger success, selling seven million copies in America. It was also produced by Street and was fueled by political hit single “Zombie,” which O’Riordan wrote in response to a 1993 IRA bombing that killed two children.

They never quite matched the success of their first two albums, with their next album, 1996’s To the Faithful Departed, selling two million copies in the U.S. (still a lot of albums). 1999’s Bury the Hatchet and 2001’s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee also didn’t make as much of an impact as their earlier work and the band went on hiatus from 2004 to 2009, during which O’Riordan embarked on a solo career, releasing 2007’s Are You Listening? and 2009’s No Baggage. She also teamed up with Olé Koretsky and The Smiths’ Andy Rourke as D.A.R.K., who released one album, 2016’s Science Agrees.

The Cranberries reunited and released their sixth album, Roses, in 2012. In 2017 they released Something Else, an album of newly recorded acoustic and orchestral versions of their previous songs.

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