Lost in The End

In the months following the unexpected passing of Dolores O'Riordan, the surviving members of the Cranberries decided to complete the album they had been recording together before her accidental death in January 2018. The resulting eighth and final effort, In the End, served as both a goodbye to their inimitable vocalist and the band itself. Along with longtime producer Stephen Street, Fergal Lawler and Mike and Noel Hogan returned the group's sound to the '90s, evoking the spirits of 1994's No Need to Argue and 1996's To the Faithful Departed. Elegiac and bittersweet, In the End is a heavy listen, haunted by the finality of mortality and unrealized potential.

California native Jeff Scott Soto is a journeyman vocalist who started out singing for theatrical metal guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen in the '80s. He then went on to front numerous not-quite-on-the-radar groups throughout the '90s before teaming with Journey guitarist Neal Schon in the group Soul SirkUS in 2004. Since 1995, Soto has also consistently released solo albums, this being his fourth. The opening song, and Schon co-write, "Believe in Me" is bravely out of time and place, sounding like an outtake from Journey's Frontiers (or like psyche-up music from an '80s teen film). "Soul Divine" has an '80s lite-metal bent to it, as does "Drowning" – and so it goes, without much deviation.