The Irish band hasn’t done a proper North American tour since 1999’s amphitheatre outing with Collective Soul. Even last year, the Cranberries were more likely to make headlines for canceling shows than playing them.

In all fairness, the group has forged ahead, defying naysayers and the odds. They first hit the charts and the road in the early ‘90s when grunge ruled and the Cranberries jangly pop hits were an anomaly.

It wasn’t long before rumors began flying that singer Delores O’Riordan was going to leave the band for a solo career. Actually, there was an O’Riordan rumor to fit every occasion: she was anorexic, having a nervous breakdown, or in rehab – depending on the day of the week.

When the Cranberries canceled their 1996 world tour, the multiplatinum-selling group seemed to have reached the end.

“We all went through a bad time, but the hardest time for me was ’95-’96, the ‘anorexia’ time,” the singer recently told The Irish Independent newspaper.

“It wasn’t anorexia. It was serious depression,” she said. “I was just really burnt out from touring. It was just awful because I couldn’t handle being on my own and I couldn’t handle not having a crowd around me and I couldn’t handle not having anything to do. It was really weird and really difficult. I took a while to kind of relax, because we had just been, ‘Go, go, go, go, go,’ for years. Out of school and then just woah!”

Things have slowed down considerably since then for the band. The members have grown up, started families and gained new perspective. They also continued to release new albums and tour, though their efforts were largely ignored in the States.

Then late last year, the Cranberries canceled the last four dates on their world tour. It was understandable, though. O’Riordan was well into her second pregnancy and was advised by her doctor to return home. Her daughter was born in January and the Cranberries were soon in the studio, working on the new album.

In September, the terrorist attacks interrupted a promotional tour of Europe and caused them to yank the video for the first single, “Analyse,” and re-edit it. The clip originally depicted O’Riordan performing on top of a building while planes flew over skyscrapers in the background.

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee hit U.S. stores October 23 and those who buy the album can stream a bonus track off the band’s obsessively updated Web site, www.cranberries.com.

“We wanted to offer our fans something unique for buying this new album,” guitarist Noel Hogan said.

More exclusive material will be added to the site during the next year as the band continues to promote the album.