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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."
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Alternative PressThe 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]
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"Faith And Courage" is head and shoulders above what came before it. In fact, it is brilliant.
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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.
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Checkout.comThere'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.
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O'Connor's most coherent record since 1990's ''I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got"
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You yearn for raw guitars, gritty beats or at least a broader dynamic range.
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Often, Sinead's words are infected with the pernicious post-therapy psychobabble that blights the contemporary female singer/songwriter...
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Faith and Courage shows a songwriter still in command of her talents.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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For such a propulsive controversy-magnet, her new album is awfully toothless and indistinct.
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An infectious record.
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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...
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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.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 10
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Mixed: 1 out of 10
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Negative: 1 out of 10
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jyotirmayadJan 5, 2006
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ConorDMar 2, 2005Brilliant album, every song is brilliant then you have No Man's Woman & Daddy I'm Fine, unbelieveable!!!
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ClareH.Oct 21, 2001