The Seattle Times
June 24, 1990, Sunday, Final Edition


A MID-YEAR REVIEW -- SO FAR, SO-SO

BY PATRICK MACDONALD


The repressive climate should put a chill in pop creativity, but so far the year
has been dominated by an unusually progressive artist, Sinead O'Connor.

Aside from a few good efforts, pop-music pickings have been slim up to now as
this year appears to be one in which artists feel the increasingly sharp bite of
censorship

At midpoint, 1990 is shaping up as a volatile year in pop music, mostly because
of the issue of censorship. For the first time, a record album has been banned
by a federal court giving potent new ammunition to a growing anti-rock, anti-rap
movement. The ruling came on the heels of a successful drive by the Parents
Music Resource Center to force the record industry to label potentially
offensive material, i.e. mostly heavy-metal rock and punk.

   That repressive climate should put a chill in pop creativity, but so far the
year has been dominated by an unusually progressive artist, Sinead O'Connor, who
has confounded the industry with her unexpected runaway success. The doleful
Irish singer's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" album spent six weeks at the
top of the Billboard album chart, the longest ride of any LP so far this year.

   A single from it, "Nothing Compares 2 U," is without doubt the song of the
half-year. The Prince-composed weeper - certainly the most anguished love song
ever to hit No. 1 - is the latest example of the record-buying public teaching
the music industry a lesson. Virtually no one in the business picked the tune to
be a hit. It didn't have a dance beat (it's almost dirgelike), the singer wasn't
flashy and she didn't have much of a track record. But the emotion and drama of
the song couldn't be denied. It bodes well for the '90s that its first big hit
is such a substantial piece of work.

   But while O'Connor is a glaring bright spot in the musical midyear, the rest
of the scene is only so-so. No great new artist - like a Tracy Chapman or a k.d.
lang - has emerged (O'Connor, although a cult figure, had been around for a
couple of years). Aside from "Nothing Compares 2 U" and a couple of other
notable exceptions, the singles chart has been pretty bland, and O'Connor has
produced the only great, potentially classic album.