Theology

Sinead O'Connor's reputation is indisputable

Sinead O'Connor needs no special presentation. She always was something bigger than just splendid songstress, it were sincerity of her songs and independence from the rules of industry that made her one of the most significant and charismatic pop performers in modern music. The fame came to her with the release of her very first disc The Lion And The Cobra, which was received a status of the best debut record of 1987 from such prestigious magazine as Rolling Stone and the cover version of Prince's song Nothing Compares 2 U made her famous all over the world. And even though the most successful years of her career took place back in 90's her influence and status are having the same indisputable reputation. In this year Sinead recorded her eighth album Theology, which marks her return to the pop fold after her experiments with reggae and traditional Irish music. As the album's title suggests the subject matter of the songs dwells upon religious themes. Sinead expresses her personal thoughts about moral, equality and beauty through the words of Scriptures and psalms.

Two parts of Theology

The album includes eight songs penned by Sinead herself and a few cover versions, particularly Curtis Mayfield's We People Who Are Darker, I Don't Know How To Love Him from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and the spiritual Rivers Of Babylon with new lyrics written by Sinead. The album is divided into two equal parts and each of them presents the same set of songs but played with different arrangements. The both of the parts were recorded separately in Dublin and London, and while Dublin half presents purely acoustic variants of the songs, that is vocals and guitar only, the one recorded in London includes full band including drums, base, guitars, piano, backing vocals and so on. Stylistically this album is reminiscent of O'Connor's early albums, to be more precise, it mostly dwells upon the calmest and the most peaceful traits of those records. The most interesting tracks are concentrated on the second half of course. Here O'Connor sounds more emotional and dynamic, though the songs are mostly having an unhurried and relaxing character.

Words of love and peace

Speaking about the most felicitous and exciting tracks of the album, such numbers as 33, Glory Of Jah and Out Of the Depth must be mentioned in the first place. These songs sound sufficiently strong and bright against the dreamy background of the rest ones and remind about O'Connor's glory days. And it is fearless to say that O'Connor is going back to the pop territory owing to these very compositions. Nevertheless, the most demonstrating yet not the best song here is I Don't Know How To Love Him. It was performed in slowed down tempo and O’Connor sings it very quiet, switching to whispering from time to time. Taking into consideration that image that Sinead O'Connor created around her artistic persona by her constant accusations for Catholic Church, which she used to express not only with the words (O'Connor once tore up a picture of a Pope), Theology is a pretty unexpected album. O'Connor isn't trying to play a role of a rock'n'roll rebel, quite the contrary, she comes as a mellow, grown wise with experience woman and mother who wants the world to hear the simple words of peace and love. As she herself said "Theology is an attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war. It is my own personal response to what has taken place and is affecting everyone around the world since and including September 11, 2001. I simply wanted to make a beautiful thing which inspires me". These words describe the inner mood of the album quite precisely. Theology is a simple and unpretentious record, which will be interesting to O'Connor's fans in the first place.