Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Several different covers exist for the album, with the most widely distributed being a man lying in a bed on the beach with gym balls moving towards him. Later European editions, namely the UK special edition, use a similar, brighter shot taken at a different time of day with a slightly different number of gym balls. The American version of the album uses a shot of the clustered gym balls as the main cover art, with the man in bed on the reverse side of the image (the other side of the booklet). The Japanese edition also uses a shot of the gym balls, but bouncing on a grass field instead of the beach.

Designer Storm Thorgerson, who also designed the cover of their previous album, Bury the Hatchet,[10] said: "The idea of red balls came from granules of coffee percolating the atmosphere, settling in your nose and waking you up. These became red (cranberries) and then enlarged to gym balls to satisfy our rampant egos. The location changed from an interior to an open space. Because this idea was preposterous, it needed testing before we did the proper thing on a beach in Somerset. The test... was done on a small grass aerodrome near London."[13]

The version of the artwork featuring a man in bed on the beach is similar in concept to another Thorgerson creation, Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Thorgerson's anomalous red balls recall another of his earlier album covers, Elegy by The Nice (1970).

At review aggregator Metacritic, the album received a score of 62 out of 100 based on nine critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception.[2] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the album "as reminiscent of their debut as anything they've done since" as well as "melodic, stately, and somber [...] with a dogged sense of decorum that keeps not just the group's musical excesses in check, but also O'Riordan's political polemics", although found there to be nothing that "really result[s] in a record that will restore the Cranberries to the status they enjoyed in the early '90s".[3]

John Aizlewood of Blender described Wake Up and Smell the Coffee as "the set of inspired anthems they needed to deliver in '96—all tremulous vocals from Dolores O'Riordan [...] and encouraging lyrics [...] It may be too late, but it's not too little."[4] Alternative Press found it to be a "slight improvement" on Bury the Hatchet (1999),[2] and Q felt it was "Charming, if slight".[2] Sal Cinequemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the album "sticks to what the Cranberries do best: constructing the radio-friendliest of pop alternatives", but concluded that "Dolores and company fall a bit short of the emotive and atmospheric heights" of their "creative (and commercial) zenith", No Need to Argue (1994).[7]

E! commented that "the band sounds strong but derivative of its own best work", going on to say that "O'Riordan's voice aims for spiritual passion but sometimes, as in the title track, becomes a chafing bray" and that it "may please old fans".[5] Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "It's official: Dolores O'Riordan is rock's most vapid lyricist", quoting O'Riordan's couplets "Birds in the sky/They look so high" from "Never Grow Old" and "Looks like we've screwed up the ozone layer/I wonder if the politicians cay-ay-are" from "Time Is Ticking Out" as examples. Willman found positives to be the return of "original producer Stephen Street", who makes "a few tracks into palatable ear candy, and O'Riordan ha[ving] traded stridency for softer tones".[6]

The Cranberries

• Dolores O'Riordan – vocals, guitars, keyboards
• Noel Hogan – electric and acoustic guitars
• Mike Hogan – bass guitar
• Fergal Lawler – drums, percussion

• Wake Up and Smell the Coffee at Metacritic