The Guardian
19 Jun 2000

The Guardian
June 16, 2000

Sinead O'Connor
Faith and Courage (Atlantic)

(Enjoyable)

It's ironic that this month has given us both the teenyfemmes Girl Thing
- a "streetwise" Spice Girls, oh joy - and the first Sinead O'Connor album
in six years. Whatever Girl Thing's merits, we can assume that being "strong, 
independent, pagan women" is not among them. That's how O'Connor describes 
herself on Daddy I'm Fine, one of the most inspirational lyrics she has 
written. Girl Thing should be forced to hear it on a loop, while the rest 
of us celebrate the return of the independent, exasperating, unique 
Ms O'Connor.

Faith and Courage lives up to its title. No confession is too unsparing
("I know that I have done many things to give you reason not to listen
to me," she admits in The Lamb's Book of Life, on her desire to preach the 
gospel), and she's a whisker away from psychobabble on The Healing Room. 
But it's laced with clarity and the need to make her own way in life, as 
No Man's Woman attests.

The spiritual streak is tempered by commercial nous, though, in her choice
of producers. Dave Stewart, Wyclef Jean, Brian Eno and Adrian Sherwood
do their things (pop, funktasia, ambient, reggae) with varying results. 
Stewart's fortysomething sleekness gets the best performance out of her 
on Till I Whisper U Something, which comes closest to the anthemic quality 
she's sought since Nothing Compares 2U topped the chart 10 years ago.

Can a pagan woman thing compete with Girl Thing? Let's hope she kicks
their skinny butts.