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Faith and Courage - Sinead O'Connor
Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
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  1. Billboard
    100
    "Faith And Courage" is head and shoulders above what came before it. In fact, it is brilliant.
  2. Checkout.com
    90
    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.
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Wall of Sound
    84
    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.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    O'Connor's most coherent record since 1990's ''I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got"
  5. MTV.com
    80
    Faith and Courage shows a songwriter still in command of her talents.
  6. The A.V. Club
    80
    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...
  7. Sonicnet
    70
    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.
  8. Spin Cycle
    70
    An infectious record.
  9. Rolling Stone
    70
    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.
  10. CDNow
    70
    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.
  11. All Music Guide
    60
    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."
  12. Alternative Press
    60
    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 this publication's reviews
  13. New Musical Express (NME)
    50
    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.
  14. Mojo
    50
    Often, Sinead's words are infected with the pernicious post-therapy psychobabble that blights the contemporary female singer/songwriter...
  15. L.A. Weekly
    50
    You yearn for raw guitars, gritty beats or at least a broader dynamic range.
  16. Q Magazine
    40
    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.
  17. Pitchfork
    38
    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."
  18. Spin
    30
    For such a propulsive controversy-magnet, her new album is awfully toothless and indistinct.
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User Reviews

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User Score
9.6 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. jyotirmayad
    6
    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!!!… Full Review »
  2. ConorD
    10
    Brilliant album, every song is brilliant then you have No Man's Woman & Daddy I'm Fine, unbelieveable!!!
  3. ClareH.
    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.… Full Review »
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