St. Petersburg Times
April 20, 1990, Friday, City Edition


SHE'S GOT A HIT RECORD
By STEVEN VOLK

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Chrysalis Records
+++++

   Sinead O'Connor's 1987 debut The Lion and the Cobra presented the small, 
Irish lass as a study in contrasts. She was beautiful, sexy and bald. She was a
diminutive banshee, wailing mystical lyrics on Troy. And she was a rocker,
growling out Mandinka on the Grammys with Public Enemy's symbol shaved into the
side of her head. Sinead O'Connor was as appealing as she was intimidating, a 
bold, thrilling, angry, enigmatic persona.

    From its title to its intimate subject matter, her second album, I Do Not
Want What I Haven't Got, reflects a new-found self-assurance and fulfillment.
But what makes this album so compelling is that O'Connor conveys the
frustrations and pain that led her up to this state of contentment. Her vivid,
gripping lyrics display a range of concerns, revolving around the changes the
23-year-old has undergone since her last album, especially her new motherhood.

    The self-produced I Do Not Want strips down to a simple, acoustic sound,
lending force to O'Connor's supple melodies. Solemn strings and keyboards swell,
creating a warm cushion for her expressive singing. Her voice is a wonder,
shifting from a whisper's subtlety to a hurricane wind's severity in a
second.The Emperor's New Clothes seems a straightforward monologue from O'Connor
to her boyfriend. Shiny, metallic pop, the song churns along on a crisp,
rhythmic riff as O'Connor offers a back-handed apology for her conduct during
pregnancy. In the turn of a phrase, she portrays a vulnerability and a stubborn
strength. "Maybe I was mean/but I really don't think so" she sings, "you asked
if I'm scared and I said so."

    Concern for her 2-year-old son has caused her to take a wary glance around.
On the folkish Black Boys on Mopeds, she laments the violence and hypocrisy of
her current home Margaret Thatcher's England. "... I love my boy and that's why
I'm leaving," she asserts, "I don't want him to be aware that there's any such
thing as grieving."

     O'Connor's declarations of strength and independence are given perspective
by her evocative cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U. Amidst a sober
arrangement of lazily undulating keyboards, O'Connor's voice lights a fire under
the song's theme of a good love hard-lost.

    Sinead O'Connor's gift is to take images of insecurity or sturdy
self-assurance and lean on either of them as a pillar of strength. She seems to
possess a wisdom that celebrates the bad and the good for making her what she
is. And because of that thought and intelligence, I Do Not Want What I Haven't
Got establishes her as not just a special artist, but a special person. There is
a decided and magnetic difference.