Dolores O'Riordan - "Human Spirit"

A few days ago we lost the voice of a generation. The generation of the 90's, of Clueless, of Dawson's Creek, the voice that asked us: "Do you have to, do you have to, do you have to let it linger?"

She had something magical in her Irish lilt. She tapped into the unconventional outsiders and made them feel seen. They were all of us. She continued her musical career long after the success of  The Cranberries faded, and she made some music that, to me, is even more powerful.  She will be missed.

Born in 1971, O'Riordan was raised near the Irish city of Limerick, the youngest of seven. She idolized her dad, a farm laborer who was injured in a bike accident that prevented him from working. But a degree of darkness overshadowed her early life. At one point, her sister accidentally burned down the family home. Later, Dolores said that as a child she had been sexually molested by an older man. As O'Riordan told Rolling Stone in 1995, "I have a lot of secrets about my childhood."

Music became her escape. In grade school, her voice stood out: "If I started to sing, then all the others in the room would stop and listen," she told Rolling Stone. In 1990, she met a local band, the Cranberry Saw Us, and replaced the departing lead singer. Thankfully, they were rechristened the Cranberries. "Dolores came and sang a few songs she had written," says Hogan. "We were blown away that this small girl from Limerick had such an amazing voice. The fact that she wasn't already in a band was a miracle."

So today, with complex melodies in my mind, I choose Dolores O'Riordan's "Human Spirit" as my let yourself see behind the clockwork, wind them up to watch them fall, open your jewel box heart, song for a, like a flame that cannot be smothered, with simple songs come complex feelings, yours were the hands I was meant to hold, Tuesday.