Chicago Sun-Times October 11, 1992, SUNDAY , LATE SPORTS FINAL Sinead and Bolton Go Ret ro, With Wretched Results Jim DeRogatis Sinead O'Connor, "Am I Not Your Girl?" (Chrysalis/EMI) (STAR) 'These are the songs I grew up listening to," Sinead O'Connor writes (somewhat defensively) in the liner notes to her third album, a tepid collection of uninspired cabaret standards. "They are the songs that made me want to be a singer. That's the 'why.' " O'Connor should have put that statement on the cover in big, bold letters as a warning to fans who think they're buying the followup to the excellent "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" (1990). Or better yet, something even more direct: "Fans Beware! This Disc Stinks." If the Irish singer's goal is to introduce songs such as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and "I Want To Be Loved by You" to a new generation, or to demonstrate the timelessness of their messages, she fails miserably. The 11 tunes are buried under saccharine strings and plodding arrangements. O'Connor pulls her punches as a singer: The plaintive wails and naked emotion that made songs such as "Nothing Compares 2 U" so powerful are nowhere in evidence. "Am I Not Your Girl?" is the work of an artist coasting on her reputation and trying to bide some time until her muse returns. There's nothing new in the idea of a provocative chanteuse dabbling in this kind of material; Madonna did it a few years ago with the "Dick Tracy" soundtrack, and she had better taste. O'Connor believes Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" is a classic that ranks with Rodgers and Hart; she likes that turkey so much, she includes it twice, once as an instrumental that closes the album. O'Connor is a talented, smart and controversial singer/songwriter, and she's capable of much better things than this album - and that pope-bashing appearance on last week's "Saturday Night Live."