Sinéad O’Connor
How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
(One Little Indian)

Sinéad O’Connor’s ninth album, How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, is a rocky and wet terrain, lyrically and musically. The somber sonnet, “Reason With Me,” really exudes that classic Sinéad O’Connor voice that captivated the whole world on her second album, 1990’s critically acclaimed I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Her unforgettable and unmistakable spicy Irish lilt rings welcomingly again on her new album. “Reason With Me” starts out haunted and slow as O’Connor breaks into confession as being a thief and a junkie. Having stolen items from people, delicate contemplation and inner emotional anguish chronicles a person caught between remorse and the desire to be liberated through reason. Over and over again one just cannot ignore the lyrics for the melodies, not even once on any song on the album. Unbalanced but rightfully so, O’Connor steadily moves between introspection and extroversion. She moves from love and dizzying lust to anger. She alternates from bare guitar-driven rock chords and softer moodier songs, to the gospel-tinged bareness of instrumentation on “V.I.P.” It is a massively soft-burning manifesto that offers an unflinching contrast between spirituality and materialism. O’Connor has been and will continue to be an artist who never sacrificed image for other people’s beliefs and, in this day and age, that says a lot.