Irish Bands

"Loveless isn’t just an essential alternative rock album, it’s also one of the best albums of the 90s. It’s like an overwhelming out-of-body experience – transcendent beauty with a capital ‘trance’ – and its reinvention of sound, texture and mood in rock music sounds as radical now as it did in 1991. My Bloody Valentine spent two years in the studio perfecting [their] formula: a dizzying blend of roaring guitars and sensual vocals from Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher. Loveless is a classic that’s spawned many imitators but has no peer."

"You could say, shrewdly, that Loveless combines two main modalities of the ’90s by being the greatest rock album that is made almost entirely of samples—drum loops, guitar feedback, vocals, all sent through an Akai S1000, which could then be triggered from a keyboard—creating a singular melding of dream-pop and acid-house and hip-hop that defined a new genre called shoegaze. You could say its underlying philosophy remains as relevant as ever: that sleepiness is a largely underrated state of being, that our unconscious impulses are far more truthful than our conscious behavior, that the best music should feel like it could go on forever. You could say that its chief architect, Kevin Shields, is influenced by no one more than fellow Irishman Edmund Burke, the 18th-century philosopher who coined the Romantic ideals of beauty and sublime, and who wrote that the richest emotional response from art comes from the “terrible uncertainty” it can elicit."

"I'm still remembering the day I gave my life away. I'm still remembering the time You said you'd be mine. Yesterday was cold and bare Because you were not there. Yesterday was cold, My story has been told."

"To all those people doing lines: Don't do it, don't do it. Inject your soul with liberty, It's free, it's free."

"There's no need to argue No need to argue anymore There's no need to argue anymore"

"The Irish alternative rock outfit broke musical boundaries for their cheery melodic and dreamy approach to rock songwriting. [...] The pop-like quality to The Cranberries otherwise melancholic songwriting — not to mention O’Riordan’s signature yodel vocal style — set them apart from many of the prominent rock acts at the time, and it’s certainly an aspect that’s kept the band’s music so admired for the last three decades."

"Oh, my life Is changing every day, In every possible way.And oh, my dreams, It's never quite as it seems, Never quite as it seems."

"Another mother's breakin' Heart is takin' over. When the violence causes silence, We must be mistaken."

"They had an accident, But they never noticed anyway. A lack of originality, Couldn't focus on the day. So much for the radio, Everybody sounds the same. Everybody wears the same clothes now, And everybody plays the game."

"And in the night I could be helpless, I could be lonely Sleeping without you.And in the day Everything's complex, There's nothing simple When I'm not around you."

"Another head hangs lowly Child is slowly taken And the violence caused such silence Who are we mistaken? But you see, it's not me, it's not my family. In your head, in your head, they are fightin'. With their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their guns, In your head, in your head, they are cryin'. In your head, in your head Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie"

"It's not worth anything more than this at all; I live as I choose or I will not live at all."

"There was a game we used to play: We would hit the town on Friday night, Stay in bed until Sunday. We used to be so free. We were livin' for the love we had, Livin' not for reality."

"We better think about the things we say. We better think about the games we play. The world went round, yeah, around and round.We better think about the consequences. We better think about the global census. If time went down, yeah, if time went down."

"I know I've felt like this before, But now I'm feeling it even more Because it came from you.Then I open up and see The person falling here is me: A different way to be."

"You're spinning me around, My feet are off the ground. I don't know where I stand. Do you have to hold my hand? You mystify me. You mystify me. You mystify me."

"If you, if you could return Don't let it burn, Don't let it fade. I'm sure I might be rude, But it's just your attitude. It's tearing me apart. It's ruining everything. And I swore, I swore I would be true. And honey, so did you. So why were you holding her hand? Is that the way we stand? Were you lying all the time? Was it just a game to you?But I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you. You've got me wrapped around your finger. Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?"

"Lying in my bed again And I cry cause you're not here. Crying in my head again And I know that it's not clear. Put your hands, put your hands Inside my face and see that it's just you. But it's bad and it's mad And it's making me sad Because I can't be with you."

"It's the same old theme Since nineteen-sixteen..."

"Close your eyes, close your eyes, Breathe the air, out there. We are free, we can be wide open.For you opened my eyes to the beauty I see. We will pray, we will stay wide open.Don't analyse, don't analyse. Don't go that way, don't live that way. That would paralyse your evolution."

"You'd better believe I'm comin', You'd better believe what I say. You'd better hold on to your promises Because you bet, you'll get what you deserve. She's going to leave him over, She's gonna take her love away. So much for your eternal vows. Well, it does not matter anyway."

"Suddenly, something has happened to me As I was having my cup of tea. Suddenly, I was feeling depressed; I was utterly and totally stressed. Do you know you made me cry? (Woah-oh) Do you know you made me die?"

"Unhappiness where's when I was young And we didn't give a damn Cause we were raised To see life as fun and take it if we can. My mother, my mother, She'd hold me. She'd hold me when I was out there. My father, my father, He liked me, well he liked me. Does anyone care?"

"Someday you’re gonna see the things that I see"

"Spaces between us hold all our secrets leaving us speechless and I don't know why who's gonna be the first to say goodbye."

"Everybody wanna steal my girl"

"My hands your hands tied up like two ships drifting weightless waves tryna break it I'd do anything to save it. Why is it so hard to save it?"

"Let's go crazy-crazy-crazy till we see the sun. I know we only met but let's pretend it's love."

"Oh baby baby don't you know you got what I need; Looking so good from your head to your feet."

"I have loved you since we were 18, long before we both thought the same thing to be loved and to be in love."

"So get out, get out, get out of my head, And fall into my arms instead. I don't-I don't don't know what it is; But you've got that one thing."

"Baby you light up my world like nobody else, The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed."

"Shadows come with the pain that you're running from love was something you've never heard enough."

"You don't really want my heart No, you just like to know you can still be the one who gets it breaking You only want me when I'm taken."

"I've got a fire for a heart, I'm not scared of the dark, You've never seen it looks so easy."

"Shot me out of the sky; You're my kryptonite."

"If only you saw what I could see, You'll understand why I want you so desperately. Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe You don't know-o-ow, You don't know you're beautiful."

"So c-come on, you got it wrong; To prove I'm right I put it in a so-o-ong."

"Said her name was Georgia Rose And her daddy was a dentist. Said I had a dirty mouth, But she kissed me like she meant it."

"Oh, I just wanna show you off to all of my friends. Make them drool down their chinny-chin-chins. Baby be mine tonight, mine tonight, baby be mine tonight yeah."

"So please don't make this any harder we can't take this any farther and I know there's nothing that I want to change."

"Can I start again and erase this pain by casting doubts into the waters, asking judgement of the sea. Though fortune may guide to the fools I have no wish to be free until I am gone."

"All these are terrifying scourges which undermine all our belief in eternal justice, and all the trust we have been taught to place in divine protection and human reason."

"Order is shattered in a strange guttural tone that resounded along the walls of the houses, which seemed dead and deserted, while behind the closed shutters, eyes watched the conquerors, who, by right of the war, were now masters of the city and of the lives and fortunes of its people."

"We torch this earth until it bleeds Rain ashes from the sky Just to make a light that no one can see We cut this earth until it bleeds Rain ashes from the sky"

"In their darkened rooms the inhabitants have given way to the same feeling of panic which is aroused by natural cataclysms; those devastating upheavals of the earth against which wisdom and strength alike are of no avail. The same feelings experienced whenever the established order of things is upset, when security ceases to exist, when all that was previously protected by the laws of man or nature is suddenly placed at the mercy of brutal, unreasoning force."

"Can someone see our self destruction? Are we reminding ourselves That our existence is So delicate"

"By our blindness and stupidity We kill... everything"

"In 1000 years what will be our legacy"

"The earthquake, burying a whole people beneath the ruins of their houses; the river in spate, sweeping away the bodies of drowned peasants, together with the carcasses of cattle and rafters torn from roofs; or the victorious army slaughtering all who resist, making prisoners of the rest, looting by right of the sword, and thanking their god to the sound of cannon."