Letting it linger: Why Irish band The Cranberries continue to captivate new generations
When Dolores O'Riordan was seventeen, she shared her first kiss with a man in the middle of a dance floor. Inflated by the magic and drama of teenage hormones, it was a moment the late Irish...
When Dolores O'Riordan was seventeen, she shared her first kiss with a man in the middle of a dance floor.
Inflated by the magic and drama of teenage hormones, it was a moment the late Irish singer-songwriter wished she could hold onto.
This feeling inspired her to write what would become one of The Cranberries’ biggest hits in 1993.
“Until then, I’d always thought that putting tongues in mouths was disgusting, but when he gave me my first proper kiss, I did indeed ‘have to let it linger’,” O'Riordan said in an interview with The Irish Times.
“I couldn’t wait to see him again. But at the next disco, he walked straight past me and asked my friend to dance. I was devastated. Everyone saw me being dumped, publicly, at the disco. Everything’s so dramatic when you’re 17, so I poured it into the song.”
In recent years, ‘Linger’ has had a major resurgence among younger generations, used as a sound on TikTok over 240 thousand times. It has also featured in popular TV shows like Love Story and The Summer I Turned Pretty, often used to convey the fragile yearnings and anxious achings of falling in love.
There have also been countless remixes, with Mexican singer Bratty the latest to transform the track - this time with a Spanglish twist.
But what is it about this song in particular that makes it, well, linger in our social media feeds and collective playlists?
The power of nineties nostalgia
You only need to turn on the TV or scroll through social media to know that 90s nostalgia is everywhere; from the seemingly endless reboots of popular franchises to TikTok trends asking people to share pictures of themselves from the decade.
The same 90s mania has taken over music, with Britpop band Oasis making headlines with their sold-out reunion tour last year, and streaming data showing an upward swing for nostalgic hits like ‘Iris’ and ‘No Scrubs’.
Although trends have always been cyclical like this, younger peoples' desires to immerse themselves in the past feels more significant now. In a digital age, the 90s continues to be a bridge to simpler times - before the internet, social media and artificial intelligence (AI) were all consuming.
'Linger' also taps into the mood of the time, its tender reflections on unrequited love resonating with those stuck in a contemporary dating minefield of situationships and ghosting.
Sometimes, the best way to cope is romanticising it all with a song - and reminding ourselves that heartbreak is timeless, even if it feels more complicated now.
Who were The Cranberries?
'Linger' was the first song The Cranberries wrote for their debut album 'Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?'
After the track was re-released in 1994, it quickly topped global charts and became a decade-defining staple of alt rock.
The band, which was founded in Limerick in 1989, went on to produce eight studio albums, with notable hits including 'Zombie', 'Dreams' and 'Salvation'. They disbanded in 2018, following the death of lead singer Dolores O'Riordan aged 46.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of their third album, 'To the Faithful Departed', while the band also recently uploaded unreleased scenes from their original 'Linger' music video.
Their dreamlike sound, infused with a Celtic wistfulness and O'Riordan's haunting vocals, remains unparalleled - although other artists continue to be inspired by them. These include Beach House, Florence + The Machine, and Taylor Swift, whose singles 'August' and 'Beautiful Eyes' have a similar atmosphere of ethereal melancholy.
And so, while other relics of '90s nostalgia are destined to come and go, The Cranberries' tunes will likely linger; blurring our tortured emotions into movie montage moments - before a TikTok reel of an AI anthropomorphic fruit brings us back down to reality.
