NEW YORK — Irish rockers The Cranberries said Wednesday they would go ahead with a new album despite the sudden death of singer Dolores O’Riordan in January.

The surviving three members of The Cranberries said that O’Riordan had already recorded vocals for a new album, which the band now hopes to finish and release in early 2019.

The Cranberries said that they also would move forward with a 25th anniversary reissue this year of their debut album, Everyone Else is Doing it, So Why Can’t We?, after putting work on hold following O’Riordan’s death.

“After much consideration we have decided to finish what we started,” the band wrote on Facebook.

“We thought about it and decided that as this is something that we started as a band, with Dolores, we should push ahead and finish it.”

The 1993 album proved to be an international success led by “Linger,” a wistful song about a first kiss.

The reissued edition will be remastered and feature previously unreleased material from the era, the band said.

O’Riordan was found dead in a London hotel on Jan. 15 at age 46. A full inquest into her death is set for April 3, although authorities are not treating her death as suspicious.

With a voice that merged florid traditional Celtic singing with the ferocity of punk rock, O’Riordan defined the sound of The Cranberries whose major hits also included the politically charged “Zombie.”

The Cranberries last released an album of new material, Roses, in 2012 after a gap of more than a decade. — AFP

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