The Cranberries were a staple of the 1990s "alternative" mainstream radio scene, and after issuing 5 studio albums and the obligatory greatest hits album ("Stars"), the band called it a day. While "Stars" was a nice overview to the extent that it focused solely on the band's best known tracks, it didn't necessarily capture all of the band's *best* tracks.

"Cranberries Gold" (2 CDs; 31 tracks; 122 min.) is an attempt to bring indeed the band's best output onto one collection. CD1 (16 tracks, 63 min.) focuses on the band's first 2 albums: 7 tracks from 1993's "Everybody Else Is Doing It" and a massive 9 tracks from 1994's "No Need to Argue", the band's artistic peak. These 16 tracks in and of themselves are a testament to the band's creative genius in the early years. Of course all the hits are here (Dreams; Linger; Zombie; Ode To My Family), but the beauty of the first 2 albums is that there really were no weak tracks on there. Just relisten to songs like "Sunday" or "Not Sorry" from the debut album, or "Empty" and "Dreaming My Dreams" from "No Need to Argue". CD2 (15 tracks, 59 min.) brings the best of the rest, starting with 5 tracks from the much misunderstood "To The Faithful Departed" 1996 album, including the commercially poorly received (but brilliant) lead-off single "Salvation". I've always liked the "Departed" album quite a bit, but for some reason the album never connected with the general public, and signaled the beginning of the band's slow demise. The terrible 1999 album "Bury the Hatchet" nevertheless gets 4 tracks. I lost complete interest in the Cranberries after that, and I must not have been the only one, as the last studio album, 2001's "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee" barely registered on anyone's radar screen (it is represented here by 4 tracks). The last couple of songs on here are from the "Stars" compilation.

In all, "Gold" is a very generous serving Cranberries, and it confirms that at its peak in the mid-90s, the band was one of the best rock bands out there, period. For "Gold" to truly have been the definitive compilation, I would have deleted several of the later (weaker) songs and replace them with some one-offs and covers that the band did in the early stages of their career. Hence, no 5 stars.

As far as compilations go, 2002's ¨Stars¨ was as good as they get. No holdouts, every single radio hit was there, so it made a perfect summary of the band's career for the casual fan. Purists complained that some of the songs were radio edits (which makes sense if you are cramming 20 tracks in one single disk) so in comes THE CRANBERRIES GOLD, where once again every hit is included along with many album tracks. But with 2 cds to fill out I can only feel that an oportunity was missed by not including killer covers the cranberries did early in their career for tribute albums like The Carpenter's ¨Close To You¨or Fleetwood Mac's ¨Go your own way¨ (both local hits in my territory). The ordinary Joe will still be better served by getting STARS, but those willing to explore the cranberries a bit more, look no further.

What can i say this is a great cd this has all the radio hits that anybody can ask for whether it be fans of The Cranberries or people that just want to listen to good music, Buy it.

The Cranberries were a force to be reckoned with in the 90s, with powerful lyrics and Dolores O'Riordan's amazing vocal deliveries.

While this is an excellent dollop of the best, not just the most famous, it fails in the pricing department. One of the great disappointments of the current digital music delivery trend is shown in the pricing of this album. As of today (8.22.09), the difference in pricing between the physical CD and the digital files is $0.78. It is time for the music industry to recognize that offering a 5% discount for not having any physical media is ridiculous.

The only reason a person would choose to purchase the digital version of this wonderful CD is because of a mad immediate gratification streak. On albums where the difference isn't at least 33% price reduction, I'm not going to make the mistake of getting purely digital delivery. I would encourage all of you to determine your required discount and cleave to it as you purchase music.