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London Times Review June 6th 1997

SINEAD O'CONNOR'S reputation paints her as a latter-day John Lennon. She has the same predilection for provocative political Next page: gestures, the same obsessive reworking of her Classical relationship with her mother, even the same concert - desire to include her offspring on her OAE/Rattle, recordings. But, crucially, she also shares a Queen talent for turning her insecurities and anger Elizabeth into passionate pop music. Hall, London There was little sign of the firebrand during this concert, one of her first UK performances since 1995. True, the second song was Famine, a polemic against English imperialism and Irish oppression. This, however, is the mildest form of rap, delivered with the soothing assurance of a Sunday schoolteacher, and decorated with bewitching snatches of Eleanor Rigby. Yet her refusal to rant gives the sentiments a quiet authority. O'Connor has the knack of seeming both vulnerable and assured, both fragile and resilient. She can appear to be shy. Her stage chat is mumbled into the microphone, her words swallowed in embarrassment. Her awkwardness is mirrored in the gawky discomfort of her four backing singers. But when they joined together on This Is To Mother You from her new EP, the breathy hesitancy of the opening is swept away upon a gospel chorus of five voices locked in harmony. These days her music has a strong Celtic feel, but it is folk singing mixed with the swagger of rock and the sway of reggae and Irish reels. Her six-piece band help to mark out the emotional storyline of her songs. Thank You for Hearing Me starts as a lilting traditional song, O'Connor's voice shimmering on the surface; but before long it is joined by Clare Kenny's rumbling bass and the song billows into life, like a becalmed yacht catching a gust of wind. Her show opens with The Emperor's New Clothes and closes with Fire on Babylon, two stridently confident songs. In between, the emotional territory is more confused, and more intriguing, especially on the beautiful John I Love You (from Universal Mother) and Petit Poulet (from the Gospel Oak EP). Her singing is often unadorned and understated, and often buried in the mix, but suddenly it will break free in an exhilarating, preening swoop. She may no longer be the feisty, cussed woman she once was, but O'Connor is still a captivating performer.

JOHN STREET