Dolores O’Riordan free download

Dolores O'Riordan, songstress and critically acclaimed voice of The Cranberries, has announced that she will be giving away a free track ahead of the release of her second solo album, No Baggage (released 24th August). The free track, Stupid, will be available to download from Monday 13th July until Monday 27th July at www.No-Baggage.net.

No Baggage was co-produced by Ontario-based Dan Brodbeck, and sees O'Riordan exploring many emotive subjects. "I probably haven't worn my heart on my sleeve like this since the second Cranberries album [1994's No Need to Argue]," she says. "It's at times very confessional and dealing with my true emotions. Everyone, through their experiences or their background, has had terrible moments where they think they can't handle it. With this record I'm trying to show that, no matter how bad things may seem, it's not really that bad in the big picture."

Looking forward and backwards – sometimes simultaneously – is one of the new album's primary themes, as evidenced on tracks such as the quasi-Beatlesque 'Fly Through' and its yearning for unambiguous solutions, the bittersweet nostalgia of the insinuatingly catchy 'It's You', and the blunt, seemingly self-critical 'Stupid'. 'Skeleton', meanwhile, takes its title not just from the physical structure at each person's core but also from the all-too-common "skeletons in the closet" that we all have. 'Throw Your Arms Around Me', with its Indian-styled instrumentation and structure is a song that O'Riordan is clearly proud of. "That song's really about how there are two kinds of people: those who are believers and have faith, and those who scoff at such things," she says. "It has a kind of mysterious sound to it, unpredictable; it doesn't sound anything like normal."

Available on CD and as a digital download, the album's full tracklisting is as follows:

1. Switch Off The Moment
2. Skeleton
3. It's You
4. The Journey
5. Stupid
6. Be Careful
7. Apple Of My Eye (new version)
8. Throw Your Arms Around Me
9. Fly Through
10. Lunatic
11. Tranquilizer

Since leaving The Cranberries, who sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, O'Riordan has been splitting her time between Dublin and Ontario, Canada. Her interests in life extend far beyond her musical abilities; she is a devoted wife and mother to four beautiful children, and is also a gifted visual artist.

www.cookingvinyl.com / www.doloresoriordan.ie / www.myspace.com/doloresoriordan