Long awaited new The Cranberries album «Roses» will out on February 14th, 2012 in Europe via Cooking Vinyl and in the USA via Downtown Records. «Roses» will be their sixth studio album, produced by Stephen Street and recorded in May 2011 in Toronto and London. It will be the band's first studio release in 10 years.

15 new tracks have been recorded for «Roses», and while not all 15 will be included on the album, all will be released, as single b-sides or bonus tracks. The first single will be track «Tomorrow» and is due for release later this year.

The new release comes on the heels of a reunion that brought the group back to the road in 2009 after a 6 year hiatus and has continued with periodic touring since then. «It's kind of picking up where we left off,» tells singer Dolores O'Riordan, noting that the group started working on some of the songs, including «Raining in My Heart», during 2003 before starting the hiatus.

«The whole thing was very lovely,» adds O'Riordan, who released a pair of solo albums during the interim. «It really came together really nicely. A lot of the tracks were written without really thinking about it. They just came. I suppose we had more respect for each other and what we were doing. In the latter days, towards 2003, we were just kind of going through the motions a bit. Now we're really happy and really appreciate what we have together.»

O'Riordan also gives props to Stephen Street, producing his fourth The Cranberries album, for leading the group smoothly through sessions in April and May at Metalworks Studios in Toronto. «Stephen was a really important ingredient since he knows the band really well,» says O'Riordan, who lives in rural northern Ontario with her family.  «One thing I noticed about having Stephen was he taught me to stop trying. I began to try with my singing, and he was like, 'Relax. Just let it happen.' When you're on tour too much or on stage too much, you feel like you have to deliver and get this super-hyped vibe going. He cooled me down and got me into a place where I was just singing... as opposed to performing, which really helped.»

Getting back to The Cranberries sound, meanwhile, was no problem for the group, especially after playing 107 shows around the world - including the band's first-ever dates in China during July. «It's really cool, the chemistry,» O'Riordan says. «It's really just right. There's something there when we're together that's really good. It's not something that money can buy. It's not really something anyone can really emulate. It's got to do with energy and chemistry and that kind of thing! It's like putting on a perfect pair of shoes. It just fits.»

Tracklisting (not finalised yet!):

[01] Conduct
[02] Tomorrow
[03] Fire & Soul
[04] Raining In My Heart
[05] Losing My Mind
[06] Schizophrenic Playboys
[07] Waiting In Walthamstow
[08] Show Me
[09] Astral Projections
[10] So Good
[11] Roses

Info submited by official The Cranberries web-site.