Something Else

Indeed a little extra for diehards and new fans alike, the Cranberries' Something Else serves as both a great primer to the band's classics and a suitable greatest-hits collection. Like Tori Amos' orchestral reworkings on Gold Dust, this release shines a fresh light and decades of hindsight on the Irish group's ten biggest singles, reinterpreted here with the string quartet from the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Dolores O'Riordan's voice remains in fine form, smooth and rich with maturity, backed by her steadfast bandmates Noel and Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler. Their 1993 debut, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, is represented by arguably their best-known songs, "Linger" and "Dreams." The sweeping renditions reinvigorate both songs with more life than their original forms, a treatment that improves a handful of others like 1996's To the Faithful Departed contributions "When You're Gone" and "Free to Decide." On the flip side, the songs that had more bite in their original incarn