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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Faith and Courage

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Atlantic
Release Date: 13 June 2000
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
Also By This Artist: Collaborations Sean-Nós Nua Theology Throw Down Your Arms
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Billboard
"Faith And Courage" is head and shoulders above what came before it. In fact, it is brilliant.
Read Full Review >Checkout.com
There's a lot going on sonically with this album, but it feels cohesive -- all its disparate elements are beautifully brought together by O'Connor's overriding openness and passion.
Wall of Sound
Enter Faith and Courage, an album that reclaims O'Connor's status and stature as it presents us with a kinder, gentler, and matured artist who still sings like a wily archangel and writes with passionate, purposeful clarity.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
O'Connor's most coherent record since 1990's ''I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got"
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Its first single, "No Man's Woman"... contains much of what makes O'Connor's music so compelling: tight songwriting, music that borrows from traditions both antique and contemporary, and a voice that can switch from fragile to fierce in the span of a graceful note. As goes the single, so goes most of the album...
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Faith and Courage speaks with the jaw-clenched directness for which O'Connor is both famous and infamous.... an album of approachable pop that's both defiant and diverse and that flaunts rock's swagger, electronica's experimentalism, folk's introspection and hip-hop's social critique.
Read Full Review >Sonicnet
Even though O'Connor adopts a penitent tone on Faith and Courage, this album is no concession to anyone or anything. O'Connor is still O'Connor: strident, contradictory, motherly, seductive.
Read Full Review >CDNow
On Faith and Courage, she returns with the blend of Celtic mysticism, commercial pop, and mature themes that moved so many listeners (and units) on 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, while pulling out a few trip-hop stops to keep things current.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
The album sounds, not surprisingly, overproduced, lacking even a hint of the earthy quality of 'I Do Not Want...' and leaving little space for O'Connor to stretch out vocally. [#146, p.96]
All Music Guide
She sounds lonely and afraid in songs like "Jealous" and "Dancing Lessons," yet her fierce confidence overpowers such insecurity on the pinch-hitting "No Man's Woman."
Read Full Review >Mojo
Often, Sinead's words are infected with the pernicious post-therapy psychobabble that blights the contemporary female singer/songwriter...
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Her choice of collaborators is piss-poor, and as every vocal snarl and heartfelt croon is wilfully blanded-out by the musos and their sterile embellishments, we might as well be listening to The Corrs.
Read Full Review >L.A. Weekly
You yearn for raw guitars, gritty beats or at least a broader dynamic range.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
The results are perplexing. An artist who has made a career out of pushing herself to extremes has put together an album of pappy, poppy songs that sound like they were written between cups of tea in the garden.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
While many adolescents go through mixed-up times, most have the sense not to let Wyclef Jean remix their accounts of first love into a four-minute bowl of mush called "Dancing Lessons."
Read Full Review >Spin
For such a propulsive controversy-magnet, her new album is awfully toothless and indistinct.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
jyotirmaya d gave it a6:
This album dissappointed me. I knew deep down as I purchased it that it would have some mediocre music on it as it was Sinead's 4th or 5th proper studio album. It had been 13 years since she arrived on the music scene and this ended up being her last CD of original music. I disliked much of it save for 3 or 4 songs. Later, she wisely chose traditional music and then a CD of Rasta music which fit her voice perfectly. My little songstress is back!!!
Conor D gave it a10:
Brilliant album, every song is brilliant then you have No Man's Woman & Daddy I'm Fine, unbelieveable!!!
jim gave it a 10:
Sure to move many. An album by an artist at the top of her profession.
Wendy D. gave it a 10:
"Faith and Courage" is irish meets reggae. It's a beautiful mixture and shows she isn't scared to explore her talents. Excellent CD!
Rainier B. gave it a 10:
The album is gorgeous!
Clare H. gave it a 10:
I think that Sinead O'Connor is extremely talented and her music is beautiful. She is my inspiration and I would love to write some music as good as hers.
