Wall of Sound
13 Jun 2000 

Sinéad O'Connor
Faith and Courage
Label: Atlantic
Genre: Alternative
File Under: She's finally got what she wants
Rating: 84 (out of 100)

Late in her first set of new material in three years - six if you're talking
about full-length albums - Irish singer and songwriter Sinéad O'Connor
issues an unexpected apology for past behaviors. "I know that I have done
many things/ To give you reason not to listen to me," she intones in "The
Lamb's Book of Life." But, she continues, "If you knew me maybe you would
understand me."

Actually, we do know O'Connor; we know her as one of the most compelling and
challenging performers of the past decade or so - we just have to take the
time to remember that. She has unfortunately been defined more by deeds than
by her art - the indelible image of her ripping the Pope's photo on Saturday
Night Live, her refusal to perform at a New Jersey facility if the "Star
Spangled Banner" was played that evening, her contested allegation of Prince
trying to molest her during a visit to her home, and volumes upon volumes of
defiant, controversial quotes.

Enter Faith and Courage, an album that reclaims O'Connor's status and
stature as it presents us with a kinder, gentler, and matured artist who
still sings like a wily archangel and writes with passionate, purposeful
clarity. Now that she is ordained as a priest in an Irish Catholic sect and
recently self-outed as a lesbian, Faith and Courage finds O'Connor coming to
terms with a variety of things, including relationships, religion, and
herself. In "The Healing Room," she's found voices inside her that would
make Tori Amos proud, "loving healers" that "make me happy with their
laughter." In the first single, "No Man's Woman," O'Connor declares both her
self-determination and her devotion, singing that "I've got a lovin' man but
he's a spirit." Songs such as "Jealous," "'Til I Whisper U Something," and
"Dancing Lessons" ruminate on loves lost, found, and, in most cases, fondly
remembered. The more directly autobiographical "Daddy I'm Fine" makes peace
with her once-doubting father, concluding that "I do what I like for fun/
And I am happy in my prime."

O'Connor delivers all this amid a broad palette of moody and textured song
arrangements crafted with a variety of collaborators. Mainstay John Reynolds
produces just one track here, the haunting "Emma's Song," while the
Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Wyclef Jean, and Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs are
among those taking turns in steering O'Connor in directions that are fresh
but never outside her well-established frame of reference. On "The Lamb's
Book of Life," for instance, She'kspere creates what Coolio's "Gangster's
Paradise" might have sounded like if it had been recorded on the cliffs of
Dover. Wyclef uses well-deployed piano to accent the spare, beat-driven
"Dancing Lessons," while Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald use a Celtic low
whistle to underscore the mournful sweetness of "If U Ever." "The State I'm
In" has the lush quality of a pop anthem, but Faith and Courage has plenty
of muscle, too, from the minimalist punch of "No Man's Woman" to the
rocking, celebratory gait of "Daddy I'm Fine" and the upbeat bounce of "'Til
I Whisper U Something."

O'Connor notes at one point that "what we once were, now we are not," but
that's a bit misleading; she's still every bit of the creative lion she's
always been, but with a more settled temperament that allows her to speak
with even greater resonance than before. 

Gary Graff