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Friday, September 7, 2018 Lifestyle | Music/Movies Cranberries singer drowned accidentally in bath

ate singer-songwriter Dolores finding O’Riordan “submerged in the album also gave rise to politically- O’Riordan, frontwoman of the bath with her nose and mouth fully charged single “Zombie”, an angry re- Lmulti-million-selling rock band under the water.” sponse to the deadly Northern Ireland The Cranberries, accidentally drowned The inquest also heard there were conflict, which hit number one across in a hotel bath after consuming alcohol, empty bottles in the room. “There’s no Europe. The band sold around 40 mil- a coroner ruled yesterday. The singer, evidence that this was anything other lion records worldwide. who died aged 46, was found in the than an accident,” said the coroner. The Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar bath in her room at the Park Lane Cranberries achieved international suc- was among the first to pay tributes, Hilton hotel on January 15. Coroner cess in the 1990s with their debut calling O’Riordan “the voice of a gen- Shirley Radcliffe in London ruled that album “Everyone Else is Doing it, So eration”. Around 200 people, including the cause of death was accidental Why Can’t We?”, which included the her mother, her three children and her drowning due to intoxication, but hit single “Linger”. Follow-up album six siblings, attended her funeral, which found no evidence of injuries or self- “No Need to Argue” went to number was held at Saint Ailbe’s church in In this file photo Irish singer Dolores O’Riordan of the The Cranberries harm. Policewoman Natalie Smart de- one in Australia, France and Germany, Ballybricken, outside the western city performs on stage during the Cognac Blues Passion festival in Co- scribed attending the scene and and number 6 in the United States. The of Limerick, on January 23. —AFP gnac. —AFP Confident and content, Paul McCartney rejuvenates sound

s perhaps the biggest living legend of rock, Paul McCartney would raise few eyebrows if Ahe stayed in a comfort zone of rehashing Beatles tunes to adoring nostalgists. Instead, the 76- year-old has recorded one of his most ambitious al- bums in years, “Egypt Station,” displaying not only a predictable confidence in his classic sound but an eagerness to freshen it for a new era. “Egypt Sta- In this file photo musician Kevin Barnes, of the Rockers Of Montreal performs during day 1 of the tion,” which comes out today, reveals an artist who Coachella Music Festival held at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California. —AFP feels on top of his game and has rooted out what- ever negativity has built up over the decades. “I used to drink so much / Forgot to come home Rockers Of Montreal bolt Israel / I lied to my doctor / But these days I don’t / ‘Cause I’m happy with you / I got lots of good things to do,” the thrice-married McCartney, his festival, denounce ‘apartheid’ guitar aptly jaunty, sings near the start of the 16- track album. His sanguine tone extends beyond his Paul McCartney own life. “Despite Repeated Warnings” is a seven- ockers Of Montreal have become the lat- “Now is not the time for escapism and cele- minute parable about the fledgling fight against cli- New vigor est musicians to pull out of a festival in Is- brations. Now is the time for activism and mate change and naysayers such as Donald “Egypt Station” is the first album in five years by Rrael, accusing the Jewish state of protests against Israeli apartheid, Israeli occupa- Trump-taken on in the song by earnest passengers McCartney, who has shown renewed vigor with ex- “apartheid” and urging more activism. The indie tion of the West Bank and the human rights on a disaster-bound ship. “The engine’s going to tensive touring since 2016 and dates scheduled rock band-which, despite its name, is from atrocities being carried out every day in Gaza by blow and we’re going to be left down below,” Mc- through 2019. The album has no explicit connection Athens, Georgia and not Quebec-follows the pop Israeli forces,” it said. The Israeli military on Cartney warns before repeated shouts of “Yes, we to Egypt with the ancient country instead an exoti- singer Lana Del Rey in leaving the three-day Wednesday closed the sole crossing to the Gaza can do it!” The song shifts gears into four distinct cized metaphor for a distant, dreamlike journey. Mc- Meteor festival, which opened yesterday in Strip, the impoverished, densely populated parts with an intensifying guitar and horns fueling a Cartney, more known for his fascination with India northern Israel. The move comes amid a cam- pocket ruled by Islamist movement Hamas, after sense of foreboding. than Egypt, has explained that he sees the album as paign by the BDS movement-Boycott, Divest- demonstrators threw rocks in a protest against a a travelogue, not merely of place but of sentiment. ment and Sanctions-that calls on musicians to US decision to end funding for the UN agency Fresh musical directions The album kicks off with a snippet of train noise be- shun Israel as a way to press the Jewish state to which runs most of the territory’s schools. Plenty of the music is Beatles-esque on “Egypt fore “I Don’t Know,” an unusually subdued opener change its treatment of the Palestinians. Organizers of the Meteor festival have criti- Station” such as “Do It Now,” whose intertwining which McCartney has described as his favorite song While artists who have heeded the boycott cized the BDS movement, saying it has “insanely minor-key piano and harpsichord lines belie the on the album, a mid-tempo piano ballad about self- calls have generally released vague, diplomatic politicized” an event that had no government message of alacrity. But the music veers in unex- doubt in a relationship. statements, Of Montreal-known for its boisterous, funding and only had music as its cause. “We be- pected directions. McCartney bellows like a hard “Back in Brazil,” one of the catchiest tracks on synthesizer-driven psychedelic rock-took aim lieve deeply in music’s capacity to transcend and rocker on “Caesar Rock.” Even more striking, Mc- the album, pays subtle tribute to the South Ameri- squarely at Israeli policy, while stressing it was heal humanity’s rifts. This is where sincere dia- Cartney embraces the hoots and hollers and elec- can musical powerhouse with its syncopated rhythm not condemning the people of Israel as a whole. logue and true understanding can take root,” it tronic voice effects of millennial-generation section but is marked more by a funky organ and a “After exhausting all of the different possible said in a statement issued before the musicians’ pop-rock on “Fuh You.” As if inspired by the genre, whirling clarinet solo. On “People Want Peace,” Mc- ways of justifying playing an Israeli party festival, withdrawals “Failure to identify that opportunity “Fuh You” features some of the album’s most banal Cartney renews the familiar pacifist optimism inher- while the political and military leaders of the is an exercise in perpetuating hopelessness on all lyricism-”Want a love that’s so proud and real / You ited from the Beatles but offers a 21st-century country continue their murderous and brutal poli- sides,” it said. Prominent musicians who remain make me want to go out and steal.” production, the Gospel vocals and strings rein- cies against the Palestinian people, we came to on the festival lineup include the US rappers The song was produced by Ryan Tedder, the forced by booming drums. “The message is simple / the realization that there is no actual appropriate A$AP Ferg and Pusha T and the California fu- singer of OneRepublic, while most of the album was It’s straight from my heart / And I know that you’ve move other than to cancel the show,” Of Montreal sionist producers Kamasi Washington and Flying supervised by Greg Kurstin, the in-demand Los An- heard it before,” McCartney acknowledges on the wrote on its Facebook page late Tuesday. Lotus. —AFP geles musician best known for co-writing Adele’s song. But he explains: “I’m not quitting while people mega-ballad “Hello.” are crying for more.” —AFP