Los Angeles Times 
June 11, 2000

WILL SINEAD O'CONNOR'S FUTURE COMPARE TO HER PAST? 

STEVE HOCHMAN and STEVE HOCHMAN  

      The pope has probably forgiven Sinead O'Connor
for ripping up his photo on "Saturday Night Live" in
1990. He's that kind of guy. 

But will the people who make or break pop careers
welcome back the mercurial Irish singer-songwriter
with the release Tuesday of "Faith and Courage," her
first album in five years? 

Or have such antics as the papal caper, her refusal to
perform at an arena where "The Star-Spangled Banner"
was played before shows and her ordination last year
as a priest in a controversial Catholic sect left fans
tired of dealing with her? 

"It's a challenge," admits Craig Kalman, executive
vice president/office of the chairman of Atlantic
Records, O'Connor's new recording home. "I don't think
she ever was prepared for her every word and her life
being picked apart. But she's apologized more than any
other public figure." 

She even apologizes on the new album, singing, "I know
that I have done many things/To give you reason not to
listen to me . . . Words can't express how sorry I
am." 

And many of the lyrics reflect her turn to
spirituality, and its related sense of forgiveness and
peace. 

Is it enough? 

"They did the first thing right in attempting to
revive her career, which is make a good record," says
Joe Levy, music editor of Rolling Stone. "And it has a
good first single "No Man's Woman" that sounds like
the Sinead that was a hit 10 years ago, but is no way
out of date. That's a neat trick." 

Rolling Stone ran a positive review of the album but
is passing for now on doing a feature about her--not
because of past incidents, but because of the present
marketplace. 

"Her hit was 10 years ago," Levy says, alluding to
O'Connor's version of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U."
"So the audience that embraced her is either well out
of college and not buying a lot of new records or,
more frightening, buying their kids Britney Spears
albums." 

Kalman says the plan is to focus on the core audience
that has an abiding attachment to O'Connor. Her
commercial peak came with 1990's "I Do Not Want What I
Haven't Got," which was certified double platinum
(U.S. shipments of 2 million copies). 

"Sinead was never trying to be a mainstream hit," he
says. "And for this one we talked about making
something equivalent to Van Morrison's 'Astral Weeks,'
a beautiful album, one of those desert island discs." 

Still, it appears that it will be an uphill climb,
especially with O'Connor not wanting to make many
concert appearances. 

"People have a short memory," says Nicole Sandler,
music director of L.A. "adult alternative" station
KACD/KBCD-FM (103.1), which has been cautiously
testing the single. "If she has a hit, people will
embrace her. But in the past she's done a lot to hurt
herself and has to do more to repair than other
artists without that baggage would."