Los Angeles Times
March 18, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

**** SINEAD O'CONNOR "I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT"

By CHRIS WILLMAN

   She's not just kidding around with those double personal pronouns in the
title. The more careful artist will usually wait a little bit into her career to
bare her soul so fully, but Sinead O'Connor -- on only her second album, at the
age of 23 -- has taken a full-fledged skinny-dip into the dangerous waters of
confessional songwriting.  At times contrary to its title, "I Do Not Want . . .
" is a stark, brave, self-absorbed -- and absorbing -- catalogue of obsession.

   Those fans who read O'Connor's press interviews after her first album -- in
which she blasted everyone and everything in sight -- will not be surprised at
the anger directed here at old friends, or the "millions of people (who) offer
advice and say how I should be," or God, or at least one ex-lover. What is
surprising, however, is the vulnerability that runs hand in hand with the
expected toughness: "It just sounds more vicious than I actually mean / I really
am soft and tender and sweet," she protests in the penultimate song, without a
trace of coyness.

   True to the confessional genre, O'Connor tends to match raw emotion with
spare sounds; the programmed minimalism of the Prince-penned single "Nothing
Compares 2 U" is characteristic of the quiet, desperate, lovelorn beauty of most
of the album. The LP's stark, downbeat musicality -- while lovingly trussed up
with strings here or a hip-hop rhythm section there -- doesn't necessarily lend
itself to instant repeat listenings.

   But neither did "Plastic Ono Band." Savor it, save it and pull it out later
on one of those fateful days like O'Connor's haunting "The Last Day of Our
Acquaintance." And may your bittersweet triumph taste as sweet as hers.