2000 Great Songs #1221: Dreams

I wasn't what you'd call a big Cranberries fan, but their 1993 debut Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We was pretty inescapable at the time. I ended up buying a copy largely for the single "Dreams" (originally released the prior year), and it's one of those records where I largely use it so I can throw that one song onto all my mixtapes and rarely play the rest of it. (Okay, "Linger" got some play as well.)

"Dreams" is largely a showpiece for the late Dolores O'Riordan, veering from ethereal crooning to full-throated wails, little bits of Kate Bush and the Cocteau Twins around the edges. But the music is no slouch here, dramatic drum fills and sweepingly produced, but no less intimate for all the epic bombast. Definitely one of those songs I largely associate with my early 90s and have rarely played since, but still sounds amazing.

Alternative video:

Live 1994:

Japanese Breakfast cover:

Hayley Williams of Paramore: