New Music Tuesday!
jamie on October 3rd, 2005
It’s a new music Tuesday, and this week, I’m actually excited about some of the stuff that’s out. It feels like so long since there was a quality NMT that I was almost looking forward to the holidays. Out today is new material from Franz Ferdinand, The Magic Numbers, Liz Phair, Twista, and Sinead O’Connor. Yeah, you read that last one right- Sinead O’Connor has a new album out.
Sinead O’Connor - Throw Down Your Arms
I was somewhat surprised last week, when the demo arrived in the mail- the cover artwork is a photograph of what might be O’Connor in her childhood, dressed in a white dress. This image is bordered by celtic knotwork. Not having heard any of O’Connor’s work since 1994, and based on the stereotyped “celtic” images on the cover, I was certainly NOT expecting a reggae album- but that’s what Throw Down Your Arms is a compilation of reggae covers featuring Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (”Sly and Robbie”). Putting two such legendary reggae innovators on your cover album doesn’t instantly qualify it as “good” reggae though. Though O’Connor’s voice is beautiful and pure, it is uncomfortably and awkwardly wedged into these songs. Maybe the Irish accent just wasn’t meant to sing reggae. Most tracks on the album are sung with all the reggae feel and mood of a pine 2×4. So, after allowing her career to rocket skyward with a phenominal presentaion of a phenominal Prince song (need I name it? okay, Nothing Compares 2 U), Sinead O’Connor seemed hell-bent on self-destruction (SNL, Anthem singings, etc), and it seems she’s still at it.
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