The Houston Chronicle
October 23, 1994, Sunday, 2 STAR Edition

LARRY NAGER; Scripps Howard News Service


 ''Universal Mother. ''
 Sinead O'Connor.

   Chrysalis/Ensign.

   It's been almost two years since Sinead announced her
retirement from pop music to study grand opera.  So, naturally,
here's her new pop album.

   But O'Connor's never been afraid to contradict herself.

   ''Universal Mother,'' named for the goddess, opens
with a speech by Germaine Greer about her cure for the
patriarchal system, which Greer says is not matriarchy but
fraternity.

   Musically, the album emphasizes the folksy, ethereal quality
of O'Connor's voice.  Her voice works beautifully here.

   The album's first song is also the loudest, as ''Fire on
Babylon'' roars and O'Connor sings ambiguously about the
biblical whore of Babylon, seemingly meaning the British
Empire.

   Her son, Jake, recites a poem of his titled ''Am I
Human,'' followed by O'Connor's most personal song on the
album, Red Football.  In her reaction to the very fame
and controversy she has courted, she sings, ""I'm not no red
football to be kicked around the garden. ''

   She also does Famine, a quasi-rap about England's
abuse of Ireland and the alcoholism and child abuse that she
says are its results.

   Along with her own material and that of producer Phil Coulter,
O'Connor again proves herself a superb interpreter of unusual
outside material.

   She brings new nuances out of Kurt Cobain's indictment of
pop-music fans in his All Apologies.

   But ever contradictory, she closes her album with an
about-face on Thank You for Hearing Me, a song of
gratitude to those who have stood by her.