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"To me, (it's) like something where suddenly -- bam! -- something hits you in a very kind of aggressive fashion, and that something is a realization," said O' Riordan, 30, settling on a couch in her Toronto hotel room yesterday.
"It's something I can't put into four words of one sentence. It's a realization that comes to a person at a certain time in their lives and they start to see their lives completely differently, probably much better than they've ever seen them."
Despite the title, Coffee -- produced by the pop-rock band's early collaborator Stephen Street (The Smiths, Morrissey, Blur) -- is a mostly gentle album of delicate, often melancholy tunes.
"Each song carries a different part of this realization, of this new spiritual feeling," continued O'Riordan.
"But it's obviously attributed to my family and the realization that maybe life isn't always about success. It's not always about being the biggest band in the world and it's not always about continuously working. Sometimes it's about taking a break and being able to enjoy it."
Case in point. Over the last decade, The Cranberries have sold more than 33 million albums worldwide, including 2.5 million in Canada.
O'Riordan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler arrived in North America five days ago for promotion and a limited number of shows. Locally, the Cranberries were scheduled to play three songs on Canada AM this morning. Other than that, they won't start touring until next February, starting in Europe, with a Toronto date, likely at the Molson Amphitheatre, not before August.
"Noel has a sick child, too, he's looking after," said O'Riordan, explaining why guitarist Noel Hogan has remained back in Ireland. "He has a very sick child who's just finishing off chemotherapy, which is something that you can't really cut into.
"So basically for that reason we haven't really done too much because she is very, very sick. So it's a horrible time for him. The best thing we could do as a band was to give him as much time to spend with her while she's going through this awful illness. With the help of God next year, she'll be better."
The Cranberries had been scheduled to take part in an Intimate & Interactive program on MuchMoreMusic on Oct. 22 -- the day before the release of Coffee. But the events of 9/11 forced them to cancel.
"Sept. 11 -- it freaked the life out of us," said O'Riordan. "Also with Noel, his personal problems with his child. So, we thought, 'Everything is pointing toward the fact that we should stay here. Go out next year when the spirits are up.' There's no point in being out there if you feel wrong about it."
As the mother of two young children -- 10-month-old daughter Molly and four-year-old son Taylor -- O'Riordan also fretted about the loss of their innocence in the wake of 9-11.
"I look at my little girl and my little boy and I think they'll never know the world the way I knew it. Now America has been screwed with. It'll never be the same, really."
O'Riordan says she and Toronto-born husband Don Burton -- also The Cranberries' road manager -- were going to go up to their Peterborough cottage on their own after Christmas, but it's kind of hard to snowmobile without any white stuff.
As it stands, the O'Riordan/Burton clan will spend the holidays back home in Ireland with their children, including O'Riordan's 10-year-old stepson Donny, along with mother-in-law and mother.
"There'll probably be seven or eight. And my husband, he cooks the turkey every year because he's great at the odd bit of meat -- he does barbecues."
Too bad O'Riordan's a vegetarian.
A SECOND CUPPA: Starting Monday, the first 100 people who visit Second Cup's website, www.secondcup.com, and then click on the link to HMV.com to purchase Wake Up And Smell The Coffee, will recieve a free limited edition Cranberries greatest hits CD, Preserved -- The Story So Far. They'll also get a Second Cup Treat A Friend Card.