News

It’s not just in your head: The Cranberries have just reissued an album they expanded a few years ago – but they’ve also got an unreleased live set due soon, too.

The band’s sophomore album, 1994’s No Need to Argue, was previously reissued for its 25th anniversary in 2020 with a host of B-sides and rare material; as of today, it’s available once more as a 2CD or 2LP edition that includes an EP’s worth of unissued material, including remixes by Iain Cook of Scottish synthpop band CHVRCHES, a demo of international favorite “Zombie” and tracks from the band’s performance at Woodstock ’94, just a few months before the album’s release. (A single disc remaster featuring the original album is also available; the album fits snugly on two sides of vinyl, though it is expanded to three sides on the 2LP, with the fourth offering the six bonus tracks.)

After attaining considerable global success with 1993’s Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? – offering the stirring singles “Dreams” and “Linger” – the Irish rockers sought a slightly edgier direction on No Need to Argue. Working again with producer Stephen Street (who helmed the great latter works of The Smiths), songs on this album touched on everything from yearning of youth (“Ode to My Family”) and romance (“I Can’t Be with You”) to harrowing cases of real-life violence that gripped the United Kingdom, from the IRA bombings of Harrington, Cheshire (“Zombie”) to the shocking murder of a Liverpool toddler by two 10-year-olds in 1993 (“The Icicle Melts”). Though Island honored the group’s wishes not to release “Zombie” as a commercial single in America, it quickly became a massive alternative radio hit, and helped power the album to one of the year’s biggest sellers for Island’s then-parent company PolyGram. The band – singer Dolores O’Riordan, guitarist/keyboardist Noel Hogan, his brother Mike on bass and drummer Fergal Lawler – would keep recording before a hiatus that lasted from 2003 to 2009; the band ended for good after completing an album in 2019, a year after O’Riordan tragically died of an alcohol-induced accidental drowning at the age of 46.

Beyond the new expansion of No Need to Argue – the bonus tracks of which are added to the existing digital equivalent of the last multi-disc re-release – the band will also partner with UMe for the debut release of their 1995 performance on MTV Unplugged. Recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a string section during the promotion of No Need to Argue, the broadcast featured favorites from the new album (“Zombie,” “Ode to My Family”), the already-sterling “Linger,” a few songs that would appear on their next album, 1996’s To the Faithful Departed (“Free to Decide,” “I’m Still Remembering”), and the fan favorite “Yesterday’s Gone,” which never made any of their albums but was beloved enough to be licensed for inclusion on the last expansion of No Need to Argue.

The new reissue of No Need to Argue is out now, while MTV Unplugged hits stores on November 7. Both can be ordered below; as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

No Need to Argue (30th Anniversary Edition) (Island/UMe 602475914778, 2025)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1 + LP 2 Tracks C1-3: Original album (released as Island 314 524 050-2, 1994)

1. Ode to My Family
2. I Can’t Be with You
3. Twenty One
4. Zombie
5. Empty
6. Everything I Said
7. The Icicle Melts
8. Disappointment
9. Ridiculous Thoughts
10. Dreaming My Dreams

CD 2/LP 2 Tracks C4-5 and D1-4: Bonus material (previously unreleased)

1. Ode to My Family (Iain Cook Remix)
2. Zombie (Iain Cook Remix)
3. Zombie (Demo)
4. I Can’t Be with You (Live at Woodstock ’94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY – 8/13/1994)
5. Ridiculous Thoughts (Live at Woodstock ’94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY – 8/13/1994)
6. Daffodil Lament (Live at Woodstock ’94, Winston Farm, Saugerties, NY – 8/13/1994)

MTV Unplugged (Island/MTV/UMe, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / uDiscover Music (white LP with lithograph)

1. Intro/Dreaming My Dreams
2. Ode to My Family
3. Linger
4. Free to Decide
5. I’m Still Remembering
6. Empty
7. Zombie
8. Yesterday’s Gone
9. No Need to Argue

All tracks recorded live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY – 2/14/1995. Track 7 released on “When You’re Gone”/”Free to Decide” CD single – Island 422-854 825-2, 1996. Track 8 released on No Need to Argue (25th Anniversary Edition) – Island/UMC 5391286 (U.K.), 2020