The Cranberries were at their most popular right at the time when I was at my most insistent that music should be loud.
Their first big hit was “Zombie” – a song that checked the few boxes that mattered to me, including big guitars and lyrics angsty and political enough that they felt important. It felt like Ireland had their own Rage Against the Machine.
So when I dug deeper and found that most of their songs were quieter and more thoughtful, I felt I’d been duped. Like “Zombie” was just a trick, a bait-and-switch designed to get me to unwittingly purchase tickets to Lilith Fair.
Thankfully my musical tastes have matured in the decades since, and I can now appreciate the beauty of not only a song like “Dreams” but this phenomenally beautiful cover, released just a few days ago.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Meg Lui’s voice fits the song extremely well; the same smoothness and strength of tone as Dolores O’Riordan but without the Canadian Goose affect (which, despite my mature musical tastes, I still can’t stand).
2. Sufjan Stevens plays a variety of instruments and gives the song that quintessentially Sufjan-like grandeur.
3. Starting at the second verse it strays from the chord structure of the original, underlying the familiar vocal line with a moody unpredictability that makes it (appropriately) dreamier.
Recommended listening activity:
Reading a kids book in the adults section of a library.