The challenge is less about having success than managing to repeat it. Even though the Cranberries topped their 1993 debut, and its hit single, "Linger," with an even bigger album and hit single (No Need to Argue and "Zombie," respectively), the well had run dry by 1996's To the Faithful Departed. The Irish pop rockers' attempt to move beyond dreamy Britpop jangle into slashing modern rock failed. With crashing guitars, singer Dolores O'Riordan's caterwauling vocals and some half-baked rhetoric, Departed exchanged shapely shimmer for ponderous, overwrought rumble. Attempts to repeat early success on the next two albums couldn't plug the leaking audience, and so the quintet called it quits in 2003. Neither O'Riordan's solo career nor the other members' projects have attracted much attention, opening the door for this reunion. The lilting hooks give lift to O'Riordan's breathy vocal stutter, a combination that's still alluring even 15 years after the band's breakthrough.
