Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

The Cranberries

To the Faithful Departed

2023 · Island Records (an Island/UMe release) 5570947 · Stereo · Germany (EU pressing; Pallas plant, 'Made in Germany' sticker, Universal International Music B.V. Hilversum rim text) · 2xLP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Island Records (an Island/UMe release)
Catalogue number	5570947
Year	2023
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	Germany (EU pressing; Pallas plant, 'Made in Germany' sticker, Universal International Music B.V. Hilversum rim text)
Format	2xLP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Rock - Alternative Rock
Producer	Bruce Fairbairn, The Cranberries (Paris demo tracks produced and engineered by Tim Palmer / Mike Plotnikoff at Maryadele Studios, Paris)
Composer	Dolores O'Riordan, Noel Hogan
Musicians	Dolores O'Riordan (vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards), Noel Hogan (electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin), Mike Hogan (bass), Fergal Lawler (drums, percussion); guests: Richie Buckley (tenor saxophone), Michael Buckley (baritone saxophone), Bruce Fairbairn (trumpet), Randy Raine-Reusch (additional percussion), Michael Kamen (string direction), Henry Dagg (musical saw on 'Cordell')

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  55703L7
-62082-II
41 JD
Side B:  5570947
-62082-II
B1
Side C:  5570947
-62083-1
C1
Side D:  5670947
-62083-1
D1

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1996 - Europe Island ILPS 8048 / 524 234-1, yellow vinyl single LP, period Island labels
2018-2022 - Limited yellow vinyl audiophile reissue LP
2023 - Europe Island/UMe 5570947, deluxe remastered 2xLP gatefold with bonus Paris demo side  <- this copy

This Pressing

2023 European Island/UMe deluxe 2xLP reissue (5570947) with a label code that dates it no earlier than 1977 - a later pressing of the 1996 original single LP, carrying a bonus fourth side of Paris demos.

The Album

To the Faithful Departed is the Cranberries' third album, written and recorded in a compressed burst in late 1995 in Dublin and Vancouver with producer Bruce Fairbairn, whose arena-rock pedigree pushed the Limerick band's sound toward something harder and more muscular than the jangling delicacy of their first two records. The album is a record of mourning, dedicated to two men who died that year - Dolores O'Riordan's grandfather, remembered in 'Joe', and Denny Cordell, the Shelter Records co-founder who had championed the band from its earliest days, elegized in 'Cordell'. Elsewhere O'Riordan confronts heroin addiction, press intrusion, the Bosnian war and gun violence, bringing an unflinching lyrical directness to songs built around her unmistakable voice. Arriving on the heels of the breakthrough success of 'Zombie' and No Need to Argue, the album topped charts in several countries and became the band's highest-charting US release, selling in the millions worldwide. Critical reaction at the time was more divided than the commercial response, with some writers finding the heavier production at odds with the band's earlier sound, though reassessment over the years has been kinder to its raw, direct songwriting. It stands as the commercial peak of the Cranberries' 1990s run and a pivotal, still-debated chapter in the story of Ireland's biggest alternative rock export after U2.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Hollywood
2. Salvation
3. When You're Gone
4. Free To Decide
5. War Child

Side 2

1. Forever Yellow Skies
2. The Rebels
3. Intermission
4. I Just Shot John Lennon
5. Electric Blue

Side 3

1. I'm Still Remembering
2. Will You Remember?
3. Joe
4. Bosnia
5. Cordell

Side 4

1. The Picture I View
2. Go Your Own Way
3. When You're Gone (Paris Demo)
4. I Just Shot John Lennon (Paris Demo)
5. Free To Decide (Paris Demo)

The Label

The side labels show a flat, deep-groove-free grey Island design with a single circular palm-tree logo centred at the bottom, an LC 00407 box, BIEM/SDRM rights numbers, and dual (c) 1996 / (c) 2023 UMG Recordings copyright lines, with rim text citing Universal International Music B.V., Hilversum. This is the modern 2020s UMe/Universal catalogue-reissue label template, not any period Island design, and Island's catalogue has been administered by UMG/Universal since 1989. The label code box is itself a mark that did not exist on records before 1977, so whatever the catalogue number or sleeve art reproduce, the label in hand cannot be an early pressing - it sits well behind the plain 1996 Island labels of the original single LP.

Fidelity

The album was remastered from the original audio for this edition, cut at a mastering facility whose engineer's initials appear etched in the runout of side A, and pressed on flat, quiet, well-centred European vinyl. Like most modern catalogue remasters it is sourced from a high-resolution digital transfer rather than an all-analog chain, giving a louder, denser master than the 1996 cut, though spreading the roughly 55-minute program across three main sides (with demos on a fourth) eases the inner-groove crowding the original single LP suffered from. No audiophile specialist edition of this title exists, so the fidelity hierarchy runs between the scarce 1996 original (favored by collectors for its period dynamics) and this deluxe edition (favored for quiet surfaces, generous groove spacing, and exclusive bonus demos).

Notes

This is a 2023 Island/UMe deluxe European 2LP reissue, not a 1996 original pressing. The grey Island labels carry dual (c) 1996 / (c) 2023 UMG Recordings copyright lines with Hilversum rim text and an LC 00407 label code, a mark that cannot predate 1977 and places this copy firmly in the modern reissue era regardless of how faithfully the design echoes the original. A 'Made in Germany' sticker and the job numbers in the runout mark it as an EU-pressed copy, spread across four sides with the bonus Paris demos on side D rather than the single LP of 1996. The true original of this title is a yellow-vinyl single LP from 1996 with period Island labels and no bonus material.

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