(Atlantic)
Herald rating: * * *
Review: Russell Baillie
The famously shorn head upon the infamous Irish singer's slight shoulders has always acted as a lighting rod for controversy. Barely a year goes by without O'Connor writing herself into another headline - the latest had her dobbing former Pogue Shave MacGowan to the cops out of apparent concern for his drug problem - to make one wonder just what is going on beneath that number two.
And this, her first proper album in six years, is the first since she was ordained as a "priest" by a breakaway Catholic group. So no surprises then that Faith and Courage contains a few sermons. What does surprise most, however, is how unsurprising it is.
Despite an all-star producer team (dub-funk masters Adrian Sherwood and Skip McDonald, Eurythmic Dave Stewart, Brian Eno, R&B name Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, Fugee Wyclef Jean among others), musically it's O'Connor in cosily familiar territory.
It has a mix of reggae lope, folky Irishness, and occasional smatterings of rock and hip-hop, all framing That Voice. The trouble is the solid but unspectacular, almost cosy arrangements seem to echo tunes she's done before and better, and on songs that tip easily from disarming lyrical directness to grandly self-indulgent.
However, sometimes doing the latter works out neatly - or at least more fun than, say, the Alanis equivalent - as on the apparent memoirs of Daddy I'm Fine which excitingly swerves from putting the dub in Dublin to a punk thrash and out again.
Or the single No Man's Woman - less a coming-out anthem, more a funny Valentine to the Man Upstairs as it turns out - which proves one of the 13 tracks' more rousing moments. Another is Emma's Song, where Eno breaks the studio mould of the rhythm-based other tracks with a grand ambient wash over a hymnal vocal that reminds you why O'Connor stood out in the first place. It's quite fetching.
But to describe an O'Connor album in mild terms such as "enjoyable" is a little worrying. But it sounds like this particular lightning rod still manages some of the old thunder but not quite enough real electricity.
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