Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

I feel for her, she seems really ill.

Great NYT profile/interview here, discussing the above and more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/music/sinead-oconnors-how-about-i-be-me-and-you-be-you.html

this album seems alright, half of one song in

I'm so ready to want a good Sinead album (the last one I bought was the forgettable one in 2000). "Reason With Me" gives me reason to hope.

Her most underrated record is that "Gospel Oak" EP. I think this is one of the most beautiful songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdeMkywlS54

My wife used to sing it to our kids.

This is all time, my friends:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-wwxSIgZH0

:-/

With enormous regret I must announce that I have to cancel all touring for the year as am very unwell due to bi polar disorder.

As you all know I had a very serious breakdown between December and March and I had been advised by my doctor not to go on tour but didn't want to 'fail' or let anyone down as the tour was already booked to coincide with album release. So very stupidly I ignored his advice to my great detriment, attempting to be stronger than I actually am.

I apologise sincerely for any difficulties this may cause.

There's all sorts of weird timing at work here. She's quiet for a while, semi-retired. Then she suddenly goes public via social media. Then there's the crazy wedding and breakdown and possible suicide attempt (from an artist who has had breakdowns and suicide attempts in the past). Then the new album comes out and gets good reviews. Then she schedules a tour - she was great when I saw her a few years ago - and at least here the venues get pumped up from smaller spaces to bigger clubs. And then she cancels. I can only imagine the pressure she is under to fill coffers or whatever, because even I could have told her taking some time off would be a wise idea.

She peaked creatively with "Troy" from the first album, y/n?

no

she peaked with that sound

and with the use of Yeatsian rhetoric

nah. Troy is grebt and easily makes any POV but IDNWWIHNG is pretty freakin strong start to finish.

Her first album is my favourite but she does too many different things too brilliantly on that album for me to label any one of them her "peak".

I would definitely agree that she peaked artistically with her first album, which I basically consider to be immaculate. Not sure I would agree with "creatively". All of her subsequent albums have at least one song on it I don't get at all.

Yeah I love her first album SO much, one of my all time favorite albums no question. But the followup has a lot of great moments in it and I kind of feel like a song like Emperor's New Clothes, for example is the culmination of the sound she explored in Mandinka. There's a lot of things she does on that first album that she explores in new ways on the second. The first works better because of the rawness, but her refinement is interesting and appealing to me also

I really am full of shit though lol

What I meant to say: "Troy" was the height of using her voice in an inchoate manner in deliberately constricted atmospheres. O'Connor is too restless to have peaks. I loved last spring's record.

xpost no I think that's spot on.

Universal Mother is underrated in my lonely opinion.

first record: "Let me try a bit of everything." Second album: "Let me try rock-inflected chamber music."

I really dug Faith And Courage -- No Man's Woman has stayed with me for a long time.

I think "Fire On Babylon" might be her best track.

I listened to "No Man's Woman" and "Jealous" a lot last February; I think my antipathy to Dave Stewart tainted my opinions in 2000.

unrelated: I love in Emperor's New Clothes the way she sings 'and how a *praaaaagnancy* can change you' :)

I love the lyrics to "Emperor's New Clothes" but I am not particularly into the melody or the arrangement, which is the exact opposite reaction I usually have to music

xpost Tim I'm not sold on best but Steve otm "fire on babylon" is, on certain days, absolutely crushing.

ugh phone posting. Tim "agreed on underrated and I'm not sold..." etc

I like how in the first verse she sings the high notes w falsetto but then after that she just fucking waaaaails

The song sounds so fucking huge and explosive and the dubby reggae vibe is perfect. Also, in the live versions on YouTube the harmonies during the chorus are p killer

Those unexpected drum fills over the "Emperor" outro -- after a steady chug-chug -- still make me swoon after all these years.

yeah it's killer

speaking of chug, her electric rhythm strums all over "Jump in the River."

xps Oh yeah that too, it's like a minute long!! What an awesome outro!! It reminds me of "Pervesion" by Stereolab.

Have any of y'all heard the "Main Mix" that Hank Shocklee/The Bomb Squad did? It rivals the orig.

xpost stevie otm x2 fire, brimstone, both barrels, etc. for righteous fury, i kinda pair it with "a prayer for england"

alfred otm x2 as well on possibly my two fave trax from that record tho in fairness it's easy to forget due to overplay just how astonishing "nothing compares 2 u" really was when you heard it for the first time.

this revive has made me happy today

IT'S ALL BEEN A GORGEOUS MISTAKE

nothing compares still makes me teary - every time I hear it it's like the first time for me, her voice is just so beautiful it kills me

p.s. here is a link to that v hard to track down Bomb Squad remix of "Emperor's New Clothes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Bm9g6ceKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88wL8oRf45U

There's an old article on <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2002/10/argentina1/";>Freaky Trigger</a> where Tom reviews a bunch of covers of Don't Cry For Me Argentina and nails why hers is the best.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/irish-showbiz/sinead-oconnor-calls-kim-kardashian-6066869

Ha! She's always great when she kicks off!

anyone take a gander at her facebook meltdown? ugly stuff...yet reading back over it all in detail.... she sounds like she has some very legitimate concerns about her son. what ugly family business.

yeah harrowing stuff. i hope she get help. constant dram with sinead unfortunately.

drama

I feel like everyone's always been cruel to her, especially in the american media. Not an earth shattering revelation I know, just happened to be listening to Troy today

The peak of Sinead's fame and my SNL fandom both occurred at the same time, but even though I was a kid, I still got that the show (taking a cue from the larger media, of course) was especially brutal to her, both before and after the infamous pope thing. It made me all the more determined to root for her, and I still do.

She was calling attention to child sexual abuse over a decade before anyone else cared! That's what that whole thing was about! Fuck america seriously

Everyone thought it was just some sort of "edgy" stunt because they're morons

Perfectly irrelevant time warp for today, granted