Sinead O'Connor: C/D?

and Jed is OTM on the don't cry for me argentina..some how lighthearted and cutting at the same time...I think she got a bit of a raw deal for being so forceful with her politics, to the point of amost being cheap. I recall a huge scandal when she played Saratoga one summer when I was in jr. high (i think) and refusing to have the national anthem played before the show...that seemed, even then, a bit childish, but the young fresh foolish me got chills when she ripped up the pope.

(Otherwise, I'm with everyone else who rates her first two as unassailable Classics).

That "Gospel Oak" EP, short though it may be, shows that she remains an amazing songwriter. Her last two albums proper, though - "Universal Mother" and "Faith and Courage" - seem too set on the by then impossible notion that she might get played on the radio, and therefore she makes the attendant compromises. To be honest, I'm worried Kate Bush may fall prey to the same delusion.

Frankly, I wish Sinead realized (assuming she doesn't) that she could maintain her ideals on the folk/cult circuit, a la Marianne Faithful or someone like that, rather than aim for pop appeal.

(xpost)

I loved that EP she put out in '97 or so.

Her version of "The Butcher's Boy" in the film of the same name is pretty special.

"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" was teh jammm at the time. Haven't heard it in years.

Massive Attack -- Special Cases (Radio Edit)
Asian Dub Foundation Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- 1000 Mirrors
Bomb The Bass Featuring Sinéad O'Connor & Benjamin Zephaniah -- Empire
Ghostland -- Guide Me God
Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Visions Of You
Afro Celt Sound System -- Release (Album Edit)
Sinéad O'Connor With The Blockheads -- Wake Up And Make Love With Me
The The -- Kingdom Of Rain (Album Version)
U2 & Sinéad O'Connor -- I’m Not Your Baby
Conjure One Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Tears From The Moon (Album Version)
Peter Gabriel & Sinéad O'Connor -- Blood Of Eden (Radio Edit)
Moby Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Harbour
Aslan -- Up In Arms
Damien Dempsey Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- It’s All Good
The Edge & Sinéad O'Connor -- Heroine (Theme From “Captive”)
The Colourfield Featuring Sinéad O'Connor -- Monkey In Winter
Sinéad O'Connor & Terry Hall -- All Kinds Of Everything

i happened to catch this one today on an internet radio station i listen to at work -- it was as stunning now as it was 15 years ago (when i first heard it). and i'm enough of a softie to get still choked up when i hear "nothing compares 2 u" (much less see that video).

i guess i should root around my cds to see if i stil have i do not want what i haven't got.

Shinehead O'Connor by miles and miles.

Bjork can mince around all she likes and be mad elfin, but Sinead is a very angry Irish woman chock full of raw intensity. [...] Shinehead is so badass that she could rock her own comic book.

-- Mike Taylor

(sadly I still haven't investigated a great deal of Sinead's music... but as a human being I respect her enormously).

I wonder what it would sound like if she covered Kate Bush, like Night of the Swallow, or Jig of Life.

good lord 'fire on babylon' is all kinds of fierce.

have not listened to Am I Not Your Girl (except for the tracks on that comp) or Bossy or Theology

or faith and thingy

i listened to all her records recently and i remember LOVING bossy

and all her records are good yes

indeed most of her catalog is legion in the used CD bins around here

On the "getting Gen Z record store clerks to pronounce Gen X bands" series of vines that were going around, the fact that even the clued-in one had clearly never heard of her kind of broke my heart. Which I know, is just me old-manning.

I feel like those videos are pure trolling. Anyone can fake mispronounce something. More likely those young ppl have a friend named Sinead.

Fake cluelessness to rile up the olds

I spent a lot of time chatting at work with undergrads (ages 18-21) and I don't think those kids are faking. I'm considered hilariously random because the majority of music and movies I reference are utterly unknown to them. A running joke in the office is that I just make up movies and say I watched them the night before, our work studies are always looking them up online and saying THAT'S REAL?!? bands too.

spent = spend

picked up a couple Sinead CDs this week -- Faith and Courage, and Sean-Nós Nua. She was generally happy w/F&C except for one track the record company pressured her into including, and she hated it ("The State I'm In"). Sean-Nós Nua is incredible, it's almost an unchallenged layup for her, taking on Irish traditional music with a modern sheen, but even in that context she absolutely kills it.

F&C suffers from Dave Stewart's production but it's got jams like "Jealous."

I haven't listened to that album in many years, but "Jealous," "No Man's Woman" and "Daddy I'm Fine" were definitely highlights.

"Lord Baker" from Sean-Nós Nua is a nearly 12 minute vocal duet w/Christy Moore (they trade off verses) which has only a simple synth keyboard as an accompanying instrument. It's an epic love narrative which is already vv intense and moving, and with these two performing it, it's just on an entirely elevated level which is almost cinematic.

Sean-Nós Nua is a helluva headphones album