MOR Pop
Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan is back with another album ‘No Baggage’, preceded by this single ‘The Journey’. The most striking feature is of course O’Riordan’s strong and unique vocal edge, which gives the song some initial interest. Sadly it’s a fairly middle of the road affair that’s over before you even begin to find any unique merit in it. There are some crunchy guitar sounds with rock aspirations, but this just disguises a bland pop song. The music has plenty of energy, but just feels like it’s going nowhere fast with a repetitive chorus featuring unadventurous lyrics.
B-side ‘Loser’ doesn’t really improve matters much; it’s a little more spirited and shows off O’Riordan’s vocals but the melody sounds very generic mediocre pop. Let’s hope that the rest of the album shows a little more promise.