Sinead O'Connor
Faith And Courage (2000)

review by: Mike Webb
Date: 11/2/00

The creepers are always the ones that worry me. Cause there are good creepers like Prince and Pearl Jam, where the more you listen, the more nuance you begin to hear and the more the record hits you. Then there are the bad creepers like Britney Spears & Hanson, where the song becomes creepier the more you hear it and you begin to hate yourself for liking it. So you've got to dig back into your memory to see what your first reaction was. And my first reaction to Sinead O'Connor's Faith And Courage album was this is damn good music.

Sinead's not rocking the house here, but she's not doing generic Lilith Fair chick rock either. Although Wyclef, ex-Eurhythmic Dave Stewart, Brian Eno and the mixing king Andy Wallace all help out here, no men are necessary. She proves it with "No Man's Woman" as it starts out with just a beat, an acoustic guitar and a vocal. Then as O'Connor sings "I've other work I want to get done, I haven't travelled this far to become no man's woman", she edges up the intensity with strings and electric guitar power chords so that you can't doubt her sincerity.

What's more is Sinead knows how to write a chorus that you'll want to hear again and again. There's strength, honesty and sensuality in her music, and if you're lucky, it'll creep right into your music bone. Besides, what could be creepy about a woman who says "to even be threatened with physical violence by Frank Sinatra is an honor."